And here we are, last chapter of this story :)

As always, beta read by Aerle.

Chapter 13

Silence filled the beach and the Moby Dick's deck as a group of crewmembers transported William's body —which they had just unearthed and covered with a sheet— onboard.

The atmosphere surrounding the crew was the most contradictory it had been in years: the somber air of mourning was almost tangible and yet, at the same time, they all wanted to throw a party to celebrate that Marco was alive.

Thatch, once the other commander had gotten dressed, had hugged his brother and then punched him, hard enough that his own hand hurt, for worrying them sick while he was having so much fun with the marine boy.

Up until a few minutes ago, and it would undoubtedly continue once William was settled in the infirmary, the crew had been gossiping like teenagers, because Marco's little bombshell about his marine fuck buddy had spread and everybody who heard about it felt the need to tell someone else.

Thatch himself didn't know what to think. Contrary to many of the younger and most recent members of the crew who generally believed Pops and Roger had just been enemies and saw the boy's relationship to the late Pirate King as a problem, Thatch was more concerned by Ace's relationship to Garp. Sure, being Roger's son meant that the kid had to be strong as fuck, but it was his relationship to the vice admiral what made him really unpredictable. If the brat started throwing cannonballs around then Thatch would have some serious words with Marco.

But Marco seemed to like the brat, and Thatch would have to beat said brat's ass if he started spouting out crap about justice.

"Good to see you, son."

Ace's eyebrows twitched, and he barely refrained from raising them.

He was pretty sure no one would believe it if someone were to tell them that Whitebeard had hugged his first mate, relieved to see that he was alright. But there was the proof right in front of Ace, and he couldn't say he was surprised, not after everything Marco had told him about the man.

"I heard something very interesting," the captain said once Marco pulled back, and his eyes wandered to Ace. The boy squared his shoulders. "Roger's brat, huh?"

"Yeah, got a problem?" Ace snapped, maybe more aggressively than he had intended. Someone yelled at him to be more respectful.

Whitebeard just laughed and called him a cheeky brat. The man seemed about to say something else, but Marco looked at him and shook his head.

Ace was sure he had been about to be invited to join the crew again.

Ace had been kidnapped.

That was a good development, much better than the previous sentence would suggest. Once it had become clear that the boy wouldn't go all marine on the crew –and, really, Marco couldn't blame his brothers for worrying when his lover's grandfather was a notorious nutjob—and the blond had assured them Ace wouldn't attack them, the crew had been much more willing to start relaxing around him.

Unsurprisingly, the other commanders had been the first ones to approach Ace. Izo had taken it upon himself to get rid of the remnants of the boy's marine uniform, and had sent a search party to bring any clothes that would fit him. He had decided to leave Ace shirtless, which Marco approved.

Right now, Thatch was trying to get Ace drunk –most of the crew was drunk already at this point and there was even some unconscious people around—and Marco was torn between wanting to see his lover under the effects of alcohol and wondering if it could even happen or if Ace's fire power would simply burn the alcohol off before it could have any effect on him. There was also the possibility that getting Ace wasted was practically impossible because he was more interested on inhaling any food that got within arm's reach and didn't have much time left to drink.

"He seems like a good kid."

Marco looked up at his father, who by now was done eating and was drinking from one of his huge bottles of sake. The man looked distinctly amused at the sight of Thatch trying to pry Ace away from a bowl of noodles long enough to shove a jug of booze down his throat. Whitebeard's other hand, the one not holding the bottle up to his mouth, was resting on Marco's back as well as its size allowed it to.

Marco might have been acting like a clingy five year old the whole party and been using Pops' leg as his seat.

"Yeah, he is." He took a drink from his own bottle. "Though he's not much like Roger."

"That good or bad?"

"Good. He's not as much of an idiot."

Whitebeard laughed.

"That's not hard."

Ace dropped down on Marco's bed and sighed happily, stretching his arms to both sides. He had missed having as much food as he wanted to eat, and had taken full advantage of it. He had to admit, though, that he had been wrong in the past when he had thought he knew what a party was like: the marines really were amateurs in comparison to the Whitebeard Pirates.

"What are you doing?"

Ace didn't bother to open his eyes at Marco's question, but he did turn his head in the man's general direction.

"Getting to know your bed."

"You're not gonna fall asleep now, are you?"

"Why not?"

Ace heard fabric rustling.

"It's the first time we have a bed."

Now Ace did open his eyes, and was met with the sight of Marco's shirtless torso bathed in the light from the nightstand lamp. He grinned.

"Right. Bed. Get here," he practically ordered, sitting up and kicking his boots off.

Ace hadn't noticed when Marco had taken off his sandals, but he watched with interest as the man took off his pants before coming to sit down, entirely naked, on the bed next to him.

"Tell me, Ace, have you ever topped?"

They were maybe a couple of hours away from the first inhabited island since their rescue and Ace was growing nervous. He didn't want to reach it, he certainly didn't want to stay there and part ways with the Whitebeard Pirates, but he didn't know how to bring up the topic. He sucked at asking for things, and was much better at just taking them.

He should have known he didn't need to worry.

Barely half an hour later, while he was eating lunch next to Marco in the ship's mess hall, Whitebeard caught his attention.

"You joining the crew, brat?"

"Yeah, sure," Ace answered, not even stopping to think about it. Next to him, Marco smiled.

Thatch turned to look at the captain.

"You okay with them? Isn't this, like incest or something?"

Ace didn't even hesitate before kicking the man, and no one looked at him funny.

Marco advanced carefully through the mostly deserted streets of the town, Ace following close behind. It was the middle of the night and both the darkness and the lack of activity gave them the perfect cover. The Moby Dick waited for them anchored in a mostly hidden beach at the other side of the island; they had carefully navigated around the island to ensure nobody spotted their ship.

"You sure about this?" he asked, stopping to look over the corner before turning to the next street. Deserted, perfect.

"Of course I am. This sounds fun," Ace answered, grinning. Marco grinned back and they continued to advance.

These last few days the papers had speculated about Marco's supposed death, the means of which had given way for many too comments on Marco's almost legendary immortality, which wasn't good for his reputation. At this point there had been even some jokes about him, and a particularly brave and stupid marine —a rear admiral in the base this island housed— had said his fame hadn't really been earned, and the reason his bounty was so high was due to his position next to Whitebeard.

So, naturally, reducing this marine base to rubble and dust had seemed like the best way to refute all the rumors about his death. That it would also serve to announce Ace's change of side was just a plus.

Sengoku groaned, and took advantage of the privacy of his office to drop his head on the desk in a most undignified manner.

On the couch, Garp was laughing his ass off. Oh, the man had raved and yelled –even going so far as destroying some furniture—when they first received the news of Ace attacking a marine base with none other than fucking Marco the Phoenix, but then the vice admiral had realized that if Ace was attacking a marine base it was because he was alive, and the man was currently laughing off his relief. He would go back to being mad eventually, and Sengoku hoped he did so somewhere that wasn't his office.

Worst part, however, was that this situation was a mess.

Oh, sure, Sengoku had thought that the fact Ace had been born had been a problem to begin with, but then the kid had joined the marines –he was very vocal about despising pirates, too—and the problem had basically solved itself. He was a decent enough guy, far more mentally balanced than Garp, but Sengoku should have known that things were too good to last. Of course the little shit had to go and meet the Whitebeard Pirates who –and Sengoku wouldn't admit this out loud even under torture—were far more decent than the average pirate, and decide to join them.

Which left Sengoku with the problem of justifying his decision to keep Roger's son around –the government didn't know yet, Ace being Garp's grandson had been enough of a background check to let him join the marines, but it wouldn't take them long to figure it out once they investigated a little—and it had to be something better than 'he's my stupid friend's grandson, and said stupid friend assured me the kid hated pirates too much to follow in his father's footsteps.'

Garp might be an irresponsible idiot, and nobody would be all that surprised that he had just gone and protected the son of a man who was supposed to be his worst enemy, but people expected Sengoku to be responsible.

The fleet admiral stood up and walked to the couch. First of all, he had to kick a relieved grandfather out of his office before he decided to attempt to kill one of the world's greatest heroes.

Everybody at the table turned around, startled, when almost hysterical voice tore through all the conversations, and they turned as one to look at the blond young man who was clutching a newspaper in one of his gloved hands, tears trailing, unchecked, down his cheeks.

The girl next to him shifted in her seat to place a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"N-Nothing," he said, and despite the tears and the stutter he sounded immensely relieved.

Sabo turned the newspaper around to show the cover page to her friend, a huge grin taking over his face. There, in huge bold letters, read The Phoenix, Alive and in the line below, written in a slightly smaller print, The Hero's Grandson, a Pirate? Most of the page was taken by a picture of Marco the Phoenix and the boy that has been said a few days prior to be Garp's grandson, Portgas D. Ace, standing back to back and grinning in what seemed to be the middle of friendly banter.

"Is that your brother?" Koala asked, smiling. Sabo had been so worried... she was really glad to see Ace was fine.

"Yeah, and it looks like he's seen reason." He turned the paper to look at it. "Maybe I should send some booze to the Whitebeard Pirates, as a thank you present."

Nami was browsing the newspaper at breakfast, elbows resting on the table and pages held open between her hands, when she heard an exclamation and the paper was ripped from her hands.

Annoyed —and here she had thought the paper at least would be safe from her idiot of a captain, as he couldn't care less about the news around the world— she aimed her best death glare at Luffy and was about to rip him off when she paused, thrown off by the huge grin taking up his face as he looked at the cover page.

"Luffy," she asked, uncertain.

Her captain laughed.

"Look, Nami!" He turned the paper around and pointed at the marine-turned-pirate on the picture. "This is Ace, my brother!"

Nami blinked.

"... Okay."

She really shouldn't be surprised that some crazy and ridiculously strong guy was related to Luffy.

Her captain looked at the picture and laughed again.

"I should buy him a hat."

The End

Finally, this is the last chapter. It's kind of a happy sad moment for me, really, because though I've enjoyed writing this story a lot, I'm going to miss it. I've had a lot of fun working on this, and you've all been great readers, so I'm about to have a ridiculously emotional sappy moment, say some even sappier words and hug you all. Or I would if my brain was capable of coming with such words at least.

No, seriously, thanks for being there, you've all been amazing readers and have given this story an impressive welcome, so thank you all for being there :D

Remember to review before you go :)