*Youtuber voice* This story is brought to you by insomnia. It's been very helpful for every chore and work i got, left me drained in the day, but at least my kitchen's spotless and my fics updated. Thank you insomnia, for sponsoring this update.

Hope you enjoyed!

Pulling Kid to the side during break time had been easy enough, especially with the promise of a big box of Rouge's raisin cookies and Ace's prized all-you-can-eat Wano-style buffet voucher for 2. It had been a painful sacrifice to make, but the redhead was singing like a canary and all too pleased in answering his questions.

"I was on the scene that day, yeah," for the first time since being presented the mouth-watering oval treats, Kid's expression turned sombre, lips pursed with a frown that says of unpleasant recollection, "Big-ass house, a massive fire, and an entire family dead. You don't get memories like that out of your head. I was one of the rookies, so i mainly just give support outside,"

"Can you tell me the events from that night, any detail at all," Ace subconsciously leaned forward from his seat, brows furrowed, "Any survivor, witnesses? What about the investigation afterwards?"

Kid reached up to scratch his hair, using the same hand he used to hold the cookie he was greedily gnawed on. Having used to seeing this sort of behaviour from Luffy - not to mention guilty of doing so himself at times - Ace ignored the sheer lack of etiquette, "Oh man, i don't really know, it was all a big giant blur. I was on the second responder team, so when i got there, everything's a chaos, you know? Kaku and Jabra failed to get in when the entrance collapsed and it almost killed Kaku. Fire's too big for anyone to get in, the sneaky ass reporters we gotta hold off.. and that one annoying guy,"

"An.. annoying guy?"

"Yeah," the redhead widened his eyes, perking up at his own memory, "Oh yeah, there was this one asshole's that's just making it hard for everybody. We were trying our best trying to kill off the fire, but he kept screaming at us to work harder and 'do you know whose house this is?! I'm going to sue you for lack of competence' and all that bullshit. With Kaku down, tension's real high between us, i think Lucci was about to punch the living shit out of him and lose him what teeth he got left," he shook his head with a sneer, "You'd think he'd be more concerned about the guy he saved instead of harassing firemen and the police,"

Something perked up in the back of Ace's head at Kid's words, "Wait, go back. He saved a guy from the fire?"

"Yeah, almost bragging about it. Ugh, now i'm remembering everything about that asshole," Kid picked up another cookie, delaying his explanation, and Ace had to hold himself back from throttling his friend to force him to speak faster, "Some chucklefuck got up to Killer's face and said something like 'even i can safe one life, all of you are a waste of taxpayer money', something, something. Kept saying that all the time, oh, good thing he saved someone since we're so useless, oh, the poor man, how will he break the news his family was killed by some incompetent fools, even though we didn't know if there's any survivor yet. I mean, there's none, so he has a point, but—"

"Was that survivor Marco Newgate?" Ace cuts off before Kid could continue with his rant, which seems to be never ending, judging from the sour look on his face.

And even anticipating the answer, something deep sank in the raven haired man's stomach when the larger man across from him nodded, "Yup, the only one who survived. Poor fucker. We got a gag order after that to hide the fact that he was alive during the investigation, and i know from Law that the hospital that treated him got the same orders. I kept up with the news few days after it all went down and his name was never mentioned once. Or the fact that someone got out of that entire mess,"

That.. explains some things, at least. If the media got the same orders as well, Absalom Leo's article must've slipped through the cracks between them.

But if so, why was he killed by Sanjuan Wolf, or whoever the arsonist was?

"Do you know who the asshole was?"

"Not really, no. He ended up just disappearing by the end of it and i was too glad to be rid of the bastard. Probably some slimy family lawyer anyway," Kid paused mid-munch, and squinted his eyes, "Say, didn't you ask me about Marco Newgate a while ago too? Don't tell me you're turning into one of those conspiracy theorist NEETs whose got nothing better to do then read news and make up weird stories,"

Ugh, he knew Kid would ask why he was asking so many questions, but Ace still wasn't sure what to answer him with. It's not like the truth is something he can just say easily, "I uh, i met the guy in the hospital," he settled with in the end, "I mean, he's a doctor in the hospital Sabo was at, right? And now i'm just curious,"

The robust firefighter looked at him weirdly, and it took all of Ace's control not to shrink. But instead of commenting, Kid merely shrugged and picked up another cookie, "Not the worse thing to be curious about, i guess," he muttered around a mouthful of raisin cookie, "Gotta say though, looking into a guy's past isn't the most effective way to get into his pants. I know Law would get mad whenever i bring up his adopted fath—"

"W-what?! Who said anything about getting into anyone's pants— No! I was just genuinely curious about what happened! It's been 5 years and still no one knew about what happened with the Newgate ars—"

Suddenly, Kid snapped one arm up and slapped his hand in front of Ace's mouth, effectively cutting off the man's yelling. He started glancing around, and gave a low shush, "Keep it down. You don't mention that incident around here blatantly like that,"

Behind Kid's - flaky, cookie crumble covered - palms, Ace expressed his muffled confusion.

Slowly, while still keeping his sight inside of the station, Kid lowered his hand, voice kept low as he whispered, "Look, i know i just said all that about conspiracy theory and whatnot, but yeah, even some of us around here think something weird's going on. But we don't talk about it, not openly," he glanced to the other side now, looking properly suspicious of every corner, "Fact is—"

"Hey guys,"

Kid's words immediately stopped at the new voice, and in an instant, his grim look was replaced with an approachable half-grin, "Hey, Burgess, going out for lunch?"

The tall and muscled form of Jesus Burgess passed by them, grinning genially, "Yup. See ya later,"

Ace reflexively waved to return the violet-haired man's gesture, and from his periphery, he could see kid doing the same, "See ya, Burgess," he called out weakly, hand still waving even after the man had turned his back on them again.

The heavy sigh from in front of him finally snapped Ace out of his stupor, "Listen, if you really wanna know what happened that night, you can't ask just about anyone around here. Don't you think it's suspicious that it's been 5 years and no one's been caught yet?" He ground out his last sentence, staring Ace right in the eyes as his tone seems to insinuate something deeper, "This is beyond just some incident, Gol-Portgas. Some deeper, political shit is going on,"

"Didn't you just scold me for going all conspiracy theorist about this?"

"That's before i know you're doing this to woo someone, though i still think it's a bad idea," he kept munching on the cookies, seemingly considering something silently under Ace's immediate and frantic denial, "Tell you what. I've been here longer than you, and more importantly, i know who was there that night and who's trustworthy. I'll ask around, see if anyone's got something new to say to help you with all this detective-ing you're doing,"

At his offer, Ace's protest died down quietly - though not the feel of his burning face, "Really, you'd do that for me?"

"Only if you promise me more of these cookies," to prove his point, Kid stacked three raisin cookies together and open his mouth widely to accomodate their size. Ace is pretty sure he can see the man's tonsil, "I'd gladly die for these things, man,"

It doesn't even surprise Ace when he arrived in Marco's room that evening, a bouquet of pink zinnias with a few sprigs of anemone in hand, and stopped just before opening the door to hear voices from inside. And it's not the echoing, hollow voice of the departed, he could clearly tell this to be voices of living, breathing humans. Damnit, he knows what he said last time, but he didn't think his mom would've moved this fast.

He entered the room with a deep sigh, already prepared to address his mother when the sight made him stop short.

Rouge was there, as expected, plucking a few bits of flowers from the vases next to Marco's bed to form a more professional looking bouquet in a vase Ace has never seen before. But sitting on the floor by the foot of the bed was Luffy, in full uniform and all, his full attention directed to the louder than usual TV, and expression shared by Roger, who was rooted in Ace's usual chair. The two cheered almost simultaneously when the announcer's voice was raised in celebration, then turning to each other for a high five before Roger turned to a completely bewildered Marco, "And that's how you win the game!"

Marco, eyes wide in alarm, only nodded awkwardly. On both of his sides, Haruta, Namur, Thatch and Jiru occupied the narrow space left, completely entranced by whatever was playing on the TV. Next to Rouge, Izo stood admiringly, if a little bit wistfully at her flower arrangement, while Vista stood a little behind the red haired woman, humming occasionally in full attention at the process. The rest of the Newgate family were chatting between themselves, some obviously pointing at the unexpected intruders.

In the middle of them, Edward was staring at Roger with recognition, and was the first who seems to notice Ace's arrival. He smiled and gestured to Ace's parents and cousin, "You have quite the lovely family, Ace,"

Ace's only acknowledgement was a quick nod, before he quickly sidled up to his mother and purposefully avoiding Marco's panicked glances. He'd deal with that later, "Mom," he hissed, ignoring Izou and Vista's amused looks, "Remember what i said about barging in on Marco? Why is the entire circus in town?"

"Well, that is rude," Rouge immediately replied, never once looking up from the flowers, "I'll have you know we're on our best behaviour. We're just introducing ourselves," she turned, and smiled beatifically at Marco, who was too stunned by Roger's long-winded explanation of whatever they were watching to even notice her, "Besides, this isn't everyone. Sabo couldn't make it, he's still recovering at home and Koala's with him,"

"How unfortunate," Ace snippily remarked.

"True, it's less merry than usual," his mother tossed back, "So i brought someone else,"

Before Ace could even ask, the door to the bathroom slams opened, followed noisily by the sound of the toilet flushing and a dreadfully familiar groan, "Nobody's going inside the toilet for the next 10 minutes. My lunch doesn't agree with me, i knew i shouldn't have Sengoku picking out our food," Garp strode out, waving a hand in front of his face with a huff, "What'd i miss? What's the current score?"

"Red team's beating out Blue team by a mile!" Roger cheerfully informed him, "Today's the day, Garp! My team's going to beat yours!"

"Nonsense! Blue team'll make a comebacks, just you watch,"

"You couldn't bring the entire circus so you decided to bring a wild animal instead?!" Ace hissed in distraught as Garp plopped down on the sofa right next to Edward and a few of his children, still rubbing his stomach and burping obscenely. Next to him, Kingdew, big, manly, muscular Kingdew, actually giggled at his grandfather's antics, falling over to Atmos next to him, who was laughing all the same, "And isn't he's supposed to be in the marine base or something?!"

"Uncle Garp said he has the permission to 'do whatever he want'. There's a formal paperwork and everything. Signed by himself," Rouge tittered at Ace's incredulous reaction,"He's tame and housebroken, dear, don't you worry,", she continued, before her attention was finally caught by the flowers in Ace's hand. Then she gave a gasp and whispered as basically snatched the bouquet out of her son's hand, "Oh, Ace! You didn't tell me!"

"What?"

She lifted one of the zinnias from the arrangement, and glanced coyly between Ace and Marco - who looks more and more wary with every passing second, Ace should probably do something about this soon - while twirling the flower between her fingers, "So you do have a crush on him, didn't you? I knew it!" She stage whispered, which thankfully could not be heard by the room at large since Roger, Garp and Luffy took that moment to voice out their celebration/disappointment loudly, but it was definitely caught by Izou who stood next to Rouge. The crossdresser's eyes were as bright and wide as hers.

"The fu- hell are you talking about?!" Ace's face began to heat up as he stammered, only belatedly remembering not to swear in front of his mother, "No i don't!"

Yet, Rouge simply raised the flower between them, as if it was supposed to prove her point, "So why the zinnia, hmm? You don't even know we were going to be here, did we spoil your secret love letter, honey?"

Ace's voice came out far louder than he wanted it to, but then, really no one else, save for his mother, Izou and Vista - seems to be paying attention to anything but the loud TV, "Because it means goodness?! I've been giving him flowers with good meaning for recovery and health!"

It was eerie to see Rouge and Izou laughing at the same time, "White zinnia means goodness, Ace," Izou explained in between cackles, "Pink zinnia means lasting affection! Oh, and here i was hoping too,"

If possible, Ace got even redder, and briefly forgetting himself by replying and turning to Izou, "How am i supposed to remember that?!"

Rouge suddenly turned to her side, smile brightening even more, "One of Marco's family's near me? Oh, hello! I'm sorry, i didn't realize you are—" With a half-bitten yelp, Ace grabbed his mother by the shoulders and pulled her away to the corner of the room, ignoring her exclamation to peek at the bed. Marco was now watching the TV as well, brows furrowed with confused concentration and seems distracted enough, good, "Hey! What's the big idea manhandling your own mother like that, mister?"

"Don't even mention about… that or them, Mom," he hissed, emphasising his every word to show how serious he was, "He.. he doesn't know. He can't know,"

In that moment, when realization dawned on Rouge's feature, suddenly the noises on the other side of the room seems far enough, "I understand, Ace," she told him gently, patting the hand on her shoulder, "You're not ready to tell,"

"It's not about me, mom, it's that he doesn't—"

"And knowing his family is always nearby might not help his recovery either,"

Ace fell silent, and quietly nodded, "I've been reading up a bit lately," he admitted, "Survivor's guilt, i think it's called. Marco, he," Ace took a deep breath, glancing to the bed, seeing Marco surrounded by his brothers, his family littered around the room unknown to him, "talking about his family is still difficult to him. He blamed himself for being alive, for their deaths,"

A hand reached up and patted Ace's cheek. He turned and found his mother's gentle gaze on him, "Recovery is always the hard part, Ace. No one can, or should do it alone," The hand pinches his cheeks playfully, "And he doesn't have to be anymore. The dead may linger, but the living needs to live on. You, no, we can show that to him,"

"Red team! Red team!" The eruption of joyful celebration from Roger and Luffy drowned out Garp's booming disbelief at the show's conclusion, accompanied by amused laughters from the Newgate family, infected by the duo's excitement. Roger leaned back on his seat to clasp one hand on Marco's shoulder with a resounding slap, "Now! Time to make your decision, boy. Are you with the brave and courageous Red team, or follow that geezer's loser Blue team?"

"I, uh," Marco blinked, perplexed, eyes darting from the three men uncertainly, "I don't… really follow these sort of TV shows—"

"X-treme Davy Back isn't just some TV show, Marco! It's a challenge of fortitude and perseverance, where only the strongest can gain victory!" the dark haired man boomed grandly, "Well, for the contestants anyway. For us, watchers at home, we support them with our spirits! With overwhelming energy! And every two weeks, with online voting to eliminate the weak link," he slapped Marco's back again, not noticing that the force even made the IV stand behind him wobble dangerously, "So, i ask again, who will you support?!"

By the foot of the bed, Luffy was still valiantly chanting 'Red team! Red team!" and occasionally blowing raspberry at a despairing Garp. Under Roger's hopeful watch, Marco finally said, all too meekly, "Uh, R-red team?"

Roger and Luffy's ensuing cheer, as well as Garp's even louder protest was enough to invite 2 sullen nurses who practically barged into the room to report several noise complaints from other people in the room while sternly warning them to keep their voice down.

While everyone's attention was on the bickering trio and irate nurses, Ace was sure he was the only one who saw a fond and wistful smile bloomed on Marco's lips.

It was a sudden change that came to stay. At least, until a few days later, when Kureha came over - briefly startled by the amount of people inside of Marco's room - and announced that with all test returning satisfactorily, Marco is allowed to be discharged from the hospital's care. The agreement that Ace will be his at home caretaker was brought up as well, and was immediately followed by Ace's parents' offer for him to stay with them for better care.

Which was promptly yet politely declined, despite how much Rouge and Roger insisted. Marco didn't feel comfortable recovering in someone else's place, preferring his own, but after much pestering, agreed to contact them directly for daily check up. The family group chat gained one more reluctant member, which, in Ace's personal opinion, was obviously a better trade off than giving Rouge a spare key to his apartment. Ace was enough, Marco had insisted, and Ace would deny how happy those words made him feel inside.

The night before Marco's scheduled discharge, Ace found himself alone with Marco, fully and completely in both physical and spiritual sense. He agreed to trade off his schedule tomorrow with someone else in the station and have tomorrow off, and the hospital's staff had allowed him to stay overnight due to taking a crash course on what to do to take care of Marco during his recovery. His family bid an early farewell so they could come over early in the morning, while Marco's own decided to spend their last consecutive night in the hospital visiting what ghost friends they made around the place.

Ace suspected that wasn't the only reason, but it's not like he could ask with Marco in the room.

"So, last day in this hospital," he voiced out from the hospital provided second bed, after a long stretch of silence. Where such was awkward in the first few days he was here, something had somehow shifted. There was no tenseness between them, and the silence only felt companionable than anything else, even without the buffer of anyone else in the room, corporeal or not, "Judging from Sabo's reaction on his last day here, i'm gonna guess you're happy about it?"

Marco only snorted, but there was a twitch on the corner of his lips, "As long as this isn't really my last day in a hospital," he replied, "But yes, it's relieving to be able to leave soon," just as the last word left him, there was a notification beep from the table between them, and immediately Ace rolled his eyes, catching the equally wary look on Marco's face. After a few second of silent consideration, the blond reached over and picked up his phone from under the vase that held a single, massive protea flower.

Marco had quirked a brow on the what would be the last flower he received from Ace, not only because Ace was back with bringing only a single flower - nevermind that the flower was as big of a single balled fist - but also because he admitted he had never seen this flower before. The raven haired man told him that the flower, unlike the ones before, had been a gift from Rouge, and after a quick search on the internet, told him held the meaning of 'change, transformation, diversity and courage'.

Privately, Ace was touched by his mother's gesture.

"You know you don't need to check that up ever time it rang, right?" the younger sighed from his bed, folding both hands as a buffer between his head and the pillow to look at the TV. Until 10 minutes ago, they had been watching another one of those documentary shows Marco seems to like so much, but after it was done, in the middle of browsing channel, X-Treme Davy Back's rerun showed up and somehow, Marco kept the channel on the boisterous sports program. Ace kept this observation to himself, "That is probably the most annoying family group chat to ever exist. 70% of the time it's just my dad and Grandpa Garp sending stupid videos and the rest of it is someone picking a fight over something dumb with someone else, and someone adding fuel to that fight," it's usually him, but he guess he better behave from now on, "The moment you see Garp and Dragon argue about politics, exit the group. Or mute the notification, that's what i did,"

"It's fine," Marco said quietly, seemingly engrossed by whatever it is he was reading. Ace was tempted to look into his own phone to see what he's reading, when the blond continued, "It's probably the most active my phone got lately,"

And there is no right reply to that that won't sound stupid, so Ace wisely kept his mouth shut.

The next round of Davy Back fight was commencing, the fox-faced announcer proclaimed loudly on screen, when Marco spoke again, "I still don't understand why you're here," his voice was quiet against the static murmurs from the TV, "Or why anyone bothers at all," the doctor was still staring at his phone screen, but it was clear he was no longer reading what's on it. Ace could see his hold on the device tightening.

Ace sat up slightly, suddenly glad that the room was clear save for just the two of them. "Marco," he called out, and faltered. Had he not erased any sort of doubts? Hasn't his constant visit prove that he cared, at least?

When the man's grip on his phone slackened, it fell on the bed beneath. Marco's eyes followed it, downcast and hooded, making it hard to even guess what he might be thinking about.

"All i know," he whispered, turning to Ace, and there was now a small smile on his lips, private and genuine, "Is that it's been so long, since tomorrow doesn't look so bleak,"

Something inside of Ace seems to leap from its place, bouncing inside of him, hitting his chest, stomach, the entire length of his throat and maybe even his tear ducts too, because there is no reason why his eyes felt heavy for no reason. He was left speechless, at that unprompted little smiles that seems to appear every now and then, never when anybody was watching closely, but not is aimed at Ace. At the words itself, and the sincereness in Marco's voice.

The living needs to live on, he remembered Rouge say days ago, and that it's their duty, as those still living, who cares enough to pick up the pieces.

It was as if his legs gained a mind of their own, when Ace slipped out of his bed and moved over to Marco's, leading him to sit by the edge of the bed. The older man was watching him questioningly, and if he noticed Ace's slightly wet eyes - damnit, since when did he became such a crybaby? It's like everything, especially around this man seems to trigger all sort of feelings in him lately - he hardly commented, "If that's what you feel," Ace began, staring him right in the eyes, "Then i need to tell you something,"

Marco's brows furrowed, smile slipping. He even leaned forward a little in anticipation and curiousity, "What is it?" he asked quietly.

Ace took a deep breath, bracing himself, "My family's going to take you out for dinner tomorrow," he said with the most serious tone he could muster, "and now's the chance to tell us the kind of food you liked, because honestly, i love them but they had the worst track record of getting kicked out for eating too much so we need to make the best out of it before we inevitably ruin your day,"

The tense atmosphere lingered for a few seconds as Marco seems to digest his words, and was broken the moment a small, smothered laughter slipped by the blond's lips. It gave way to an ugly snort that was followed closely by little giggles that made this shoulders shake. It was this reaction that made Ace gave his own snorting and crisp laugh, "I'm serious!" he insisted, "We're blacklisted from 20 all you can eat restaurants around town and at least 30 places required us to make a reservation 3 days in advance so they could stock up before our arrival,"

"Why can i completely believe that?" Marco said in between gasps of laughter, "What is your entire family?"

"You've seen them, they're nutcases," Ace shrugged, mouth grinning so wide his cheeks hurts, "And since you're in the family group chat now, congratulations, you're one of them, so watch what you say next,"

Instantly, regret piled up inside of Ace when Marco's laughter abruptly stopped. He looked like he was in a daze as he watched Ace, lips still parted and grin slowly fading away.

But then he smiled again, small and faint, but it's still there. He gave a quiet little hum and didn't say anything else, but it felt like a slowly forming realization.

"Nothing spicy or oily," he mumbled a while later, catching Ace off guard, "Not because i don't like them, but there is a strict health regulation i need to follow in my recovery. I don't have any specific food that i like, but on top of my head now, i'm thinking fish,"

"Fish," Ace repeated dumbly, still distracted by the sight of that smile, "Fish. Oh, yeah, fish, seafood, got it. Uh, there's one by the shoreline we haven't been banned from, though since we never even been there, there is a possibility that we may be tomorrow, so two birds with one stone," he laugh awkwardly, word blurting out unthinkingly, "No oily, so fried food is out of the question, what about grilled? There is this insanely good hibachi place i just know Sabo's gonna suggest, we were going to go there for his release but they were closed that day—"

"Ace," Marco called out gently, a smile back on his lips, "I'm fine with whatever it is,"

He remembered the first day he met Marco in this room, the wrong step they took, and the sight of a man clouded with so much pain in his eyes in what felt like a whole lifetime ago. Seeing this man right now, smiling at him, laughing with him, animated instead of a living corpse, it astound Ace to silence. He took in the sight of still pale yet no longer gaunt face, the sound of phone still vibrating occasionally on the bed and the loud orchestral sport music from the TV.

He found himself staring into Marco's eyes, twinkling with life where it had been hollow and soulless before, and found himself sucked into that sea of blue.

It must be such an odd sight for the hospital resident to witness in the first place, a repeat from just nearly 2 weeks before when an entire family marched into their sanctuary of the sick and suffering all bright and bubbly, ready to pick up one of their own.

For those who knows Dr. Marco Newgate, recluse, hermit and all alone, it must be even more confusing to know these people were coming for him.

On their way to the hospital entrance, Ace suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway, gazing at the sight before him: A very crowded hall, both the dead and the living mingling together. Marco's disfigure sibling walked alongside of Sabo and Luffy who were at the head of the group, enthusiastically explaining and expressing their disbelief of 'You never been to a hibachi before?!', while Edward Newgate followed Roger and Rouge's more subdued pace, fondly watching the younger people in front of them.

Not a single sad face in sight, as they all gathered around one man in between them all.

"Mister?" a chirpy little voice called out, and Ace turned to find the little girl by the entrance watching him, a curious smile on her lips, "Is that man the one that big family has been looking after?"

"He is," Ace told her, "He's getting better now,"

The girl nodded, "That whole family always looked so sad. I'm glad they're happier now," then, her smile fell, as she glanced at Ace shyly behind her bangs, "Are you leaving too, Mister? He's the one you've been visiting, right?"

Ace gave her a pinched smile, realizing the reason behind her question instantly, "I am. So this is a goodbye for us too, i'm so sorry," As expected, the girl turned downcast, and once he made sure the group was has made their way outside of the door, he raced over to her side, carefully keeping his hand out of sight, "But guess what, i have one last surprise for you,"

This made her perk up, and her entire translucent face seems to lit up when he revealed the single stem of peony he had been holding on to, "Flowers has meaning, and when you give it to someone, you're giving them that message. I've been using it to cheer up my friend there," he gestured to the slowly distancing group, eyes instantly finding Marco's back, "This flower here means 'a happy life',"

"It's so pretty! Thank you, mister," the girl giggled, hand cupping the blooming petals, "You know, i am so glad i get to meet you and see all these pretty flowers. Thank you mister, for making me happy,"

Ace smiled, wider and with a touch of melancholy. Ah, he hadn't seen this one in a while, he thought, when the hand around the flower began to fade slowly, "I hope wherever you're going, there will be an entire flower field just for you,"

It was how Koala found him not long after, probably volunteering to go back when they notice he'd not with them, "Ace? What are you doing? Everyone's waiting," she asked, but stopped the moment she saw the place he was looking at, a single peony laying on the floor in front of him "Hey, isn't that where… uhh, there's one there, isn't it?"

With an almost lethargic movement, Ace shook his head, "Not anymore," he quietly told her, "She's moved on,"

Behind him, Koala was silent. He took a deep breath, before continuing, "Ghosts lingers because there's still something holding them back, or because they're still too attached to their life. But it doesn't matter how long it took, be it days, years, even decades, everyone needs to move on,"

With one last look at the peony, he turned around and gave the blonde a heavy smile that doesn't hide his true emotion, "She's in a better place now, that's good enough for me. Come on, let's not keep everyone waiting, shall we?"

Alternative title for this fic: There are at least 6 different foreshadowing and one of them is a red herring. Or not, because saying 'foreshadowing' defeats the purpose to shadow the fore.

Well, please tell me what you think so far (or any theories, i welcome them! To see how i can make it more complicated, but i welcome them!), and i hope you liked it!