Magic of the D

Summary: In a world where each child had a personal guardian that they can summon, Ace finds himself unable to summon even the basic of creatures. Disheartened, Ace runs off one day and finds himself in the middle of a huge mess. (Marco x Ace Magic!AU)

Notice: Yes, don't bother hounding me on how I've got to work on other stories… I'm trying to get the first chapter of the challenges that came in to me published so I don't forget them on a later date. Also, I'm pissed with exam week. : (

- Chapter 1 -

Ace sighed as he watched the kids in his class as they interacted with their summoned guardians with a slight jealousy. Out of the entire class, Ace had the highest grades in academic studies and physical education, but when it came to his magic classes, Ace couldn't summon even a basic elemental. Ace could use magic, particularly fire, but being able to summon a guardian was something that even a kindergartner could do. Yet, here was Ace. Third grade and the boy was unable to summon anyone or anything. His lack of summoning ability was also the major source of teasing.

Ace didn't mind it so much- being unable to summon- since Ace saw people on a daily basis that treated their Guardians as a tool and a mindless being. That pissed Ace off, since even those that were summoned by others were living beings and minds of their own, but he couldn't say anything against it since whenever he would mention it people would scoff and attack him.

Speaking of his classmates… "Hey, if it isn't Portgas!" Ace heard a sneer, and when he turned around he came face to face with one of his biggest bullies. Kidd; a red haired kid who wore a 'gothic' kind of makeup… which just confused Ace to no end. Why would a guy wear makeup on a daily basis?

"What do you want, Kidd?" Ace mumbled and was almost instantly met with a fist and bloodied nose.

"Why don't you just give it up and forget about ever summoning a guardian?" Kidd laughed and was going to throw yet another punch, but the teacher grabbed his arm and scolded Kidd, who then ran off to the principle with a small 'trouble' pass. When the teacher was going to ask if Ace needed to go to the nurses' room, Ace took off and ran out of the school, not caring if his grandparent was called and he got grounded for the remainder of his life, and ran out of the town into the forest that surrounded the town on all sides.

Ace wasn't sure how long he had been running, but when he stopped he found himself by a giant lake that was fed by a waterfall. Looking upwards to gauge the time, Ace found himself paling at the stars dotting the black sky above him. Still, not being able to find it in him to care too much, Ace sat down by the waterfall and closed his eyes to enjoy the ambient noises that came from the forest.

Ace sighed in contentment when he opened his eyes, but was quickly pulled from his musing when he spotted a giant blue-yellow bird floating limply in the water by a log. Worried that the bird might be dead, Ace jumped into the water and swam over to where the log was, and nearly let out a breath of relief when he felt the faint pulse that came from the bird. Being closer to the bird, Ace noticed a few more things.

For example, the bird's feathers were silk and gleamed in the right light. The bird also had this weird crest of a cross with a crescent-shape going through it that looked kind of familiar to Ace. Shaking his head of thoughts, Ace pushed himself to swim while carefully carrying the bird from the log it was half-way floating on to the shore, where Ace took off his shirt and carefully tried to wrap the bird up in it so that it would stay warm while Ace made his way back to the shabby thing of a place he called his house.

When he arrived, Ace carefully made a small nest of soft materials that could retain heat and placed the bird on it, making sure to keep his shirt on top of the bird in hopes of keeping the bird from freezing. With the bird settled in to a degree, Ace sank back against a wall and frowned as he eyed the crest on the bird. It didn't look like it should be there, and after a few blank minuets of nothing entering his mind, Ace figured out why. He had seen that symbol before, or rather the person that the symbol reminded him of. Once. His grandfather still cared for him back then.

Garp, Ace's adoptive grandfather that left the boy in the Gray Terminal had taken him to a boarding house once and Ace got lost while there and walked right into a giant old man. Edward Newgate. The old man was more than happy to keep Ace entertained while his grandfather dealt business with the first-division commander… or something like that. The man had a tropical fruit shaped head, that's all Ace could really remember besides the odd looking painting that hung in the living room that had that same crest on it.

Sighing, Ace figured he'd have to return the bird when possible and decided to do so when the bird was in better health. Smiling softly, a rare act to an abandoned child named Ace, Ace laid down on the small mat that Ace had made as a bed and tossed a thin hide-skin blanket over himself and drifted off to sleep as the sky began to twinkle with the stars. Ace didn't even register that he had skipped dinner as thoughts of Newgate and the semi-giant blue-yellow bird that felt like silk warmly filled his mind.

- This is a break -

When Ace awoke, he did not expect the waking call to be from a bird, and much less how one could even caw that loudly. Confused as to why a bird was waking him, Ace kicked off the thin blanket and sat up with groggy eyes as he tried to process what he was seeing. The bird that Ace found yesterday was up and walking about as if it owned the place. The pile of materials that Ace had managed to salvage together had been moved to be closer to Ace and had been smoothed of any and all ruffles. When the bird finally noticed that Ace was up and staring blankly at it, it jumped up onto the cloth covered tree stump that Ace had dubbed a table and cawed again.

Ace wasn't sure what the heck had happened. The bird that that had a faint pulse no less than last night was now up and about as if it hadn't been in any danger of death.

"Hey, birdy," Ace spoke softly, not sure if the bird would freak of not, "if you're feeling better then I guess that you should be heading back to the old man's place…" Ace's face twisted slightly in confusion, "you've got the same mark on your chest… so I'm going to assume that you're with the old man, aren't you?" Ace tilted his head slightly and then shook his head, not expecting an answer from the bird.

Yawning and stretching, Ace wanted dearly to just flop back down onto the mat and go back to sleep since winter morning were never fun for him, thankfully Ace had fire and fire was warmth, but managed to force himself up and grabbed the shirt that had been put onto the nest the bird cleaned-up and put it on after he washed it up a bit. Then with a painful reminder that his stomach was empty, Ace got out of his house and entered the forest to find something to hunt and eat, which turned out to be a boar.

A loud caw while Ace was cooking the boar over a pit of fire startled him and made Ace lose his concentration of the fire, which thankfully wavered and died almost instantly.

"Hey there, if you want some, I hope you don't mind boar. I don't intend to hunt for picky eaters." Ace lightly joked, mostly to himself, as the bird shuffled closer to him and watched as the fire flickered back to life and began cooking the boar again.

When the breakfast was done, and Ace didn't want to think about how the bird seemed to be a ninja (could be related to Luffy in some odd-way, Ace hoped it wasn't the case) and kept scaring him whenever Ace let his guard down enough to relax, and Ace began his walk to the Newgate Boarding House with the bird in-tow.

Ace wasn't sure what he was expecting when he got to the Boarding House, but it certainly wasn't a welcoming-party which Ace couldn't find the strength to run from. There was this kimono-clad man (Ace thought the man was a sakura demon at first, which nearly made the poor boy faint) who kept showing Ace around and thanking him for returning the phoenix to their residence, and Ace froze. A phoenix?

"Why is the phoenix blue, then?" Ace had asked, and the not sakura-demon laughed. "There are two kinds of phoenixes. Lunar phoenixes and solar phoenixes. The one you returned home is a lunar phoenix." The man had explained, but Ace still didn't fully get it.

The tour had continued until the man introduced Ace to Newgate, who simply said that it was nice to see Ace again, and Ace wanted to hide at the look in the eyes of both the phoenix, who had taken to following Ace around, and the man in the kimono.

"Ah… it's nice to see you again… old man." Ace rubbed the back of his head and inwardly began to freak out.

"How is Garp these days?" Newgate just had to ask the one question that Ace couldn't answer.

"… He took Luffy and Sabo somewhere a while back and I haven't seen them since…" Ace answered slowly and that made Newgate narrow his eyes. Was Ace in trouble?

"…Explain" Was Newgate's simple demand that didn't sound at all like a demand and help more worry than anger. Ace gave in rather easily- he never could resist doing something that was asked of him when it came from the old man.

"I don't know. Garp said something about taking Lu and Sabo somewhere a year or so back and I haven't heard from them since." Ace frowned, "may I leave? I've got classes to go to…"

"At least Garp paid for your schooling…" Newgate frowned and let Ace leave, but held back the phoenix when it tried to leave, much to Ace's gratefulness.

When Ace shut the door, Newgate turned to the bird and spoke. "Keep an eye on him, please. I'm going to have a talk with a certain marine."

"Pops…" The kimono man spoke up, but Newgate shushed him. "I know, child. It seems you all may be having a new brother soon."

- This is a break -

When Ace arrived at school, he had missed his first class which was PE, which Ace didn't mind all that much. PE never meant much to Ace other than a chance to vent out frustrations.

Ace's second class was relatively simple and went by without much of a hitch, but it was near the end of the second class that Ace began to feel weird. Sure, Ace had narcolepsy and that had a weird feeling to it right before it struck him out cold, but this was different. It was like a pleasant burning had enveloped him, and Ace had to check multiple times just to make sure than he wasn't setting anything on fire by accident. It had happened more than once.

Ace's third class was lunch, and Ace was thankful that the people who ran the school cared that everyone could get fed regardless of if they could pay or not. That simple kindness had saved Ace from starving during lunch more than once, and Ace felt bad for living on that kind of kindness.

Fourth class was when things got out of hand for Ace. Ace's magic class was playing with their guardians again while working on forming stronger bonds with their guardians, when a giant blue-yellow bird flew onto the field and made itself at home on Ace's lap which startled everyone including Ace, who had no idea on why the bird had come back.

"Ace!" Kidd came up and had a look of both awe and horror written deeply into his face, "When did you managed to summon a guardian?"

"…I didn't…" Ace frowned, "… I don't think I did… at least…" Ace was completely confused and gapping like a fish out of water. Why the heck was there the bird on his lap?! A lunar phoenix, according to the kimono-clad man, was the bird that was currently making itself at home using Ace's crossed legs as a make-shift nest. Worried that Ace would have to return the bird, again, Ace checked the front of the bird for the crest, and sure enough the purple symbol was etched clearly for all too see.

"Damn…" Kidd rubbed the back of his head, "I guess even the one who hasn't been able to summon a blob for a guardian can summon something if given time…" Kidd then smirked, "Guess that just means I need to find a new teasing material to jab at you, so why don't you hurry up and piss off that weird bird of yours?"

Ace huffed at this and frowned, "why don't you run back to mister raccoon and leave me alone… unless you want to become the same color as your hair… as you know, I can light shit on fire and you classify as shit." Ace didn't want to deal with all the shit that came with Kidd, and the bird seemed to understand that and stood up defensively- and act that confused both Ace and Kidd.

Kidd let out a slightly evil chuckle and walked off with a small wave, and before Ace could register it, Ace was hugging the bird and burying his head into its silky plumage all while inwardly trying to bless the bird for not only getting Kidd to leave him alone, but for making sure that he wasn't lonely for the day.

"…I can't keep calling you birdy, can I?" Ace sighed as the bird turned its head to look at Ace with a slightly raised eye. It confused Ace greatly at how human-like the phoenix was... Ace had observed birds before and none acted quite as human-like as the one on his lap. The bird could understand him, could comprehend that which most other birds couldn't (and bird where such smart creatures from what Ace had observed), could even seem to try to communicate to Ace and even seemed to understand Ace's emotions before the kid could even feel them himself. "But you already have a name… I hope… so mind dealing with being called birdy until I can ask that sakura demon impersonator?"

The bird let out what Ace hoped to be equivalent to laughter at this got to feel the bird's whole body shake from it before the bird calmed down enough to stop shaking and let out a rather soft sound that Ace almost missed due to being used to the loud caw's that came from the little time they spent together this morning. If Ace didn't know better, he'd say the bird was more than highly amused by what had just been said and was completely relaxed in Ace's lap.

When the rest of the class managed to get over the shock of a giant blue bird being on Ace's lap willingly, another classmate spoke up and then the floodgate of questions came, which forced Ace to break out into a run while being followed by the phoenix.

After about ten minutes, Ace managed to throw off the rest of the class by having climbed into a tree, Ace let out a breath of relief and almost didn't register the light nudging and cooing that the bird was making. When Ace finally opened an eye, he met the questioning and expectant stare of the bird, and Ace didn't need a bird translator to understand what the heck the bird wanted to know.

Instead, Ace decided to show the bird why everyone was so demanding in questions, and opened a portal. No sooner had the portal been opened, did the portal begin to waver and collapse on itself and left a basketball-sized open hole in the void where the portal was, and just as quickly as the portal wavered and collapsed, the opened hole vanished.

Turning back to the bird, Ace found himself shocked by the understanding look in its eyes and the gentle rubbing of the head onto Ace's cheek. Ace sighed and began to stroke the bird down the neck, which seemed to please it a little too much as it closed its eyes and rested its head against Ace's shoulder.

Ace wasn't sure how long the two had been there, but he faintly heard the school bell ring that signaled the end of the school day, and Ace smirked. His day was just going to begin now. Now, where could he find Bluejam in the Gray Terminal…?

"Come on, birdy." Ace lightly nudged the bird and watched as it stirred and opened one of its eyes slowly and huffed in annoyance that its peaceful nap was ruined. "I want an explanation, and something tells me a bird isn't going to answer me…"

Almost as if angered by that statement, the bird began to glow a light blue and grow larger. The wings and talons became limbs and the beck became shorter, and then the light faded to reveal a man with blond hair that was shaped in a tropical fruit and he wore a light purple jacket that was opened up in the front to reveal the Newgate crest, light blue shorts that almost reached his knees that was held up by an orange sash that was tied in a not to the right side. He also had on wooden sandals that looked like they would be a pain to put on daily.

"I'm sorry, yoi." The man huffed, "that I'm unable to answer a few simple questions."

Ace was still frozen in shock that the bird was a man, and remained in a frozen state until his rear landed on the ground below the tree and he glared upward that the man-bird-phoenix person –thing and snarled, "What the hell?!"

"Sorry, yoi." The man spoke again when he got to the ground and knelt down to be eye-level with Ace. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine!" Ace growled and stood up to dust off his rump, "… you do have a name, yes…?" Ace changed subjects, hoping that the man would catch the hint, which he did.

"I'm Marco, yoi." Marco stood up and Ace felt tiny compared to the adult.

"What is with all the 'yoi' ? Are you not from here?" Ace asked once his initial anger faded from his. Marco nodded, and Ace felt envy swell up inside of him. He'd always wanted to go out and see what other parts of the world looked like, but Garp had chained him to Foosha village- a small town that struggled to get by. It was thanks to the boarding house that belonged to Newgate that the town ever survived year by year. Ace didn't mention this, however, and spoke up with another question. "…So why are you following me around?"

"First, let's start with why your portals keep collapsing like they do." Marco sat down and motioned for Ace to do so as well, which Ace didn't. Marco sighed and began his simple explanation. "You're putting too much energy into your portals, yoi. When you can't control that much, making an old-fashioned contract is better."

"What do you mean?" Ace tilted his head out of sheer curiosity, what old-fashioned contract? The school never taught that… then again, don't phoenixes live forever?

"What I mean is you need to form a bond with the one you want to contract to be your guardian, and then form a pact with them, yoi. Pacts can be over anything, but this method is highly dangerous since if the pact is broken the one who shatters it will shatter mentally…" Marco frowned, thinking about something before continuing, "As you know, I'm a lunar phoenix. Why don't you practice trying to form a bond with me, yoi?"

Ace was confused at this point. Didn't forming a bond take time? Almost as if sensing his confusion, Marco spoke up. "There are three kinds of bonds. Physical bonds, which are the most important in any contracting for if you don't have any physical trust, there is no function between guardian and contractor. Then there are emotional bonds, which are the mental connection between contractor and guardian, yoi." Ace waited for the third, but it didn't come, so Ace asked.

"The third kind of bond… is not something you should worry about just yet." Marco offered a small sad smile, but quickly cut off Ace from making any form of argument. "The bond I want you to try is an emotional bond. Just focus on me, and you'll understand, yoi. Close your eyes if you must."

Ace frowned at this, and idly wondered if this was going to mess up his plan to piss off Bluejam later, but did as told and focused on Marco, but nothing happened that Ace could tell, which slightly made him sad. The only thing Ace felt was him getting a bit dizzy, and then finding himself slightly amused.

"Don't worry about it; I did say practice, yoi." Marco chuckled; completely aware that was he was doing would give away what just happened. He was not disappointed when Ace let out a small shriek that he would deny later and stared at Marco in horror.

"What-?!" Ace froze. He wasn't feeling the amusement, it was Marco!

"I told you, yoi." Marco sighed, "Emotional bonds are a mental connection. You don't need a solid thought to communicate using a mental connection. You do however, need someone who is willing to let you synch with them, yoi." Ace felt himself get dizzy again and then the amused feeling vanished. "Now, where are you going? Pops told me to keep an eye on you, yoi."

"I don't need a damn babysitter!" Ace yelled, now fully ticked off. Who did he think Ace was? Ace raised himself (to a degree, Makino was a truly wonderful miracle in Ace's life) and he didn't need someone coming in and telling him that he needed an eye kept on him!

"I wasn't babysitting you, yoi." Marco raised a brow at this, "I was just saying that I was asked to keep an eye on you. Not stop you from doing stupid things, yoi."

"Good, because Bluejam is going to get what deserves today, and I'm not stopping it because some jerk decided that I need to stay on the good side of safe." Ace huffed and stormed off, not wanting to think about anything other than venting in the manner he knew best- physical. In fact, Ace managed to force all thoughts of everything out of his head that when a semi-giant blue bird landed on his shoulder and screwed with Ace's sense of balance, Ace jumped and freaked.

Marco let out the weird sound again that sounded like he was trying to laugh, and Ace had half a mind to grab the man by his neck and fling it as far out as possible, but decided against it since Marco really hadn't done anything other than land on Ace's shoulder and give him a scare.

- This is a break -

When Ace arrived at the Gray Terminal, which was located relatively close to Foosha Village, Ace tensed as he always did and grabbed a metal pipe that was lying around and gripped it as if his life depended on it, which wasn't really the case as Ace was one of the two biggest terrors of the entire Terminal. The second being the man he was going to meet up with to pummel into the ground- again.

Ace wasn't sure what Marco was thinking, but whatever it was it was, it couldn't be pleasant from the look of pure horror in the bird's eyes. Ace wanted to laugh at the bird and tell him that the truth behind the reason Gray Terminal was so poor it looked (and smelt) like a dump (which it was in all honesty), but refrained from doing so since he didn't want to cause even more trouble for the people of Gray Terminal and Ace vaguely could recall that Newgate would take any chance he got to attack a noble.

"If you're going to be here, could you remain in your phoenix form or something…?" Ace asked with slight worry entering his voice- not something the woman who was walking by was expecting and let out a gasp and ran up Ace while asking what was wrong.

"Conis…" Ace began, feeling a headache coming on, "I'm fine. No, I'm not sick. I'm not hurt either- yet. I still need to find Bluejam." The woman backed off a bit and frowned, her white 'useless' wings were brilliantly glinting from the sunlight that managed to sneak past the shade of Grey Terminal.

"It's just unlike you to sound worried…" Conis frowned, her pet fox finally having just now caught up and made herself a home on Marco's shoulders. "I'm sorry," Conis apologized when she noticed her white Skypian fox on his shoulders, "Sue really likes people and heights."

"It's alright, yoi." Marco waved everything off, finding it rather odd that a female Skypian was in the Grey Terminal, which looked to be more like dump than a terminal used for anything, "I'm used to it." Thankfully for Conis, Sue understood her owners' unease and got down from Marco and trotted off back to where she and Conis had made a small home for their selves. Just as Conis waved goodbye and started to walk off, Ace called out to her and asked if he could find Bluejam in his usual place.

"No!" Conis laughed, "You raised hell there last time so they booked it up and left. Can you try and control your fire this time?" Conis tried to ask with a serious face, but both her and Ace broke into laughter with Ace promising to try and control his own fire this time. Then, she was off to her home where she knew her pet and father would be waiting with a nice warm bowl of soup.

Ace seemed to think for a moment and Marco noticed Ace's face seemed to light up quite literally when he figured out whatever it was that was on his mind with a smirk. "You know…" Ace grinned and turned to Marco, "I don't really care. I'm just going to raise hell for them again, so I'll start at the edge…" Ace snickered to himself as he took off in a run, leaving a confused and slightly speechless Marco behind.

Marco remained where he stood; gapping like a fish much like Ace had done earlier today, when he realized something. "…Ace took off without me, yoi."