This story is a one-shot sequel for Luffy's Mystery Bird, be sure you've read that before jumping in on this :)

Contains spoilers for Wano. Be up to date.

Also, this story is thanks to Bella Scullw whose reviews were literally what inspired me to write and delve into this againh haha. Thank u for that :)

Marco's birthplace is permanently winter and almost inhospitable. It's cruel and cold, he'd often say, unsure if he's referring to its climate or its people. (There'd be no real difference.) Marco does not recall a time where the cold, azure fire wasn't a part of him. Eating the mythical Devil Fruit is a memory lost to the blurriness of childhood, but Marco's known of fire and wind since before he knew his name. He didn't know much of freedom -that would come later.

He was never mistreated, he was ignored. Marco was a freak of nature in a village that had no time for anything other than surviving and not freezing to death, which was a regular occurrence to those who weren't careful or profitable. Had Marco been an ordinary orphan, he would've indeed died off, never to be known other than to those who would consume his frozen corpse. But Marco hadn't been a typical orphan, ordinary hadn't ever applied to him, and so Marco lived to suffer, lived to hunger, lived to freeze but never, ever died.

Winter after winter, Marco stole, he begged, he worked where he could. More than once, he collapsed, and as blackness invaded his vision, without much of a concept for death, he just felt it in his heart that he wouldn't wake up. But he did. Marco woke up back from repeatedly dying until the word and all its encompassing danger and pain meant little to him. Marco had never desired death before Pop's passing, and honestly, he felt immune to it. Untouched by such a common thing, but now he knows better. Death isn't only an accident or a lack of physical capacity. The end Marco fears will not be granted to him by anyone other than himself. For Marco to indeed die, Marco's soul must die first.

Izou catches sight of blue fire as he's on his way to the mess hall, he blinks once and then twice. But no, that is most definitely Marco and his impressive wingspan on final approach to their vessel. Izou's running full steam even before his brother's talons shoot forward to catch himself on the railing, the Phoenix form regal and absolutely massive. Looking more like hope than ever. Izou feels a burden melt off his shoulders.

Marco… Marco hadn't been okay the last time Izou saw him, and then he'd gone missing for months. Izou loves him and trusts him more than he trusts anyone else he knows, but he'd thought that maybe…

(Not Marco though, no way, Izou had seen his brother literally rise from the ashes.)

"Marco!"

Do you ever wonder what would become of the Moby without Marco here?

He meets Marco halfway on deck and has to restrain the urge to bodyslam him. Soon as the fire recedes, leaving his blonde brother in its wake. Izou smiles up at him, quick to embrace him. Marco's arms wrap around him, effortlessly with the ease of familiarity even when they haven't seen each other in at least a year. Izou enjoys Marco's hug for a moment because no matter that, Izo is a fully-grown adult, and there's no crew anymore, maybe especially because there's no crew anymore; Marco is always going to be Izou's big brother. Izou has missed him terribly. (He'd also worried him half to death.) Marco's back, and it feels like everything can get back on track. Nothing will be the same, Izou knows, not with how many siblings they've lost, but it doesn't mean they cannot be beautiful once more.

Marco's words shatter any illusion Izou keeps of reuniting under one flag.

"You're joining another crew?!" Something cold has gotten a hold of Izo's spine, and it squeezes the life right out of him.

"I'm not," Marco denies, warily. "It's not that simple, yoi."

"Well, make it simple because you disappeared out of nowhere, left us, with no explanation, went radio silent for over a goddamn year." Izou pauses purposefully for effect because Marco needs to understand. "Marco, we thought you were dead!"

"I almost was." The words are so softly spoken, Izou has no doubt he isn't meant to hear them, and they nag at him, but Izou's on a roll. All the hurt and disappointment and stress accumulated in the time Marco was gone is coursing through him, making him feverish in his anger.

"And now you come back, and you've what, been chilling around with the rookies as if we didn't miss you? As if your family didn't need you?"

Izou starts feeling regretful quickly. Unlike every other time he's gotten angry at Marco, his brother does not rise to meet his temper. His eyes are fixed and hard, with no crow's nest to belie his age, of course, the bastard, not with instant regeneration on his side. He's clenching down on his jaw, towering over Izou, and yet, he looks… withdrawn, small is the word, and it makes Izou sick. Marco breaks his gaze, turning away from him. He seems cornered, already eyeing the horizon longingly.

He's always there, you know? I worry about him sometimes -like crap, doesn't he need to sleep?

"We needed you." I needed you. He accuses, with the full weight of unmet responsibility. Marco flinches back and swallows and… and looks decidedly defeated, and this isn't what fighting with Marco is like. Izou doesn't want his brother feeling guilty, he wants a fucking goddamn explanation! After everything they've been through, how could Marco just leave? Return smiling happily and talking to Izou about a crew as if their family…! "Where the fuck were you?"

"I went home."

No

Fucking

Way.

"You… don't mean the Moby."

"I was there too recently, but no," Marco admits, and he walks backward to lean on the railing. Izou catches on, a long story then. He swallows his anger, for now, something's wrong with Marco, but he's talking at least. Though all the cheer he'd brought with him seems to have evaporated. Despite his hostility and being the primary cause, Izo doesn't like it. "I went to my birthplace on that Winter Island I never allowed the Moby to visit."

"You said that place is filled with bad memories," Izo recalls because this, too, had once been a lingering argument between them. Marco was a stubborn man, and Izo had always felt like he played his heart too close to the chest. Why couldn't he trust Izo with more things? "Why would you go back?"

"There was no reason not to, everywhere seemed filled with bad memories then." He cuts him off before Izou can protest: there had been dark days, but they were family, they were supposed to help each other through these things not go off and mope on their own in some half-frozen piece of rock. "At least what I remember from that place is mild compared to…" He doesn't finish the sentence, but Izo doesn't need him to. Failing to save Ace, Pops, Marinefored, the Payback War… The last had been -somehow- the worst. (So many siblings lost. Izou is personally acquainted with Marco's demons.)

Did you notice if Marco grabbed lunch today? Or breakfast for that matter?

(Why is a dead man clouding his thoughts today? Ace's observations had grown and grown as he spent time on the Moby Dick, but Izo hasn't given them any further thought since before Thatch had been murdered. A part of him's never forgotten the teenage Marco that landed on Wano, Marco's matured sure, but the crew had survived without his mothering before, surely it wasn't...)

"Why didn't you talk to me?" Marco has always been quiet, reserved. Ace used to tease him for being old and grumpy. Izo knows Marco used to only confide in Pops, even back when they'd both been rookies still. Despite Izo being closest to Marco, he was just as in the dark as the others when it comes to Marco's past or his mood. The days after losing against Teach were somber, but Marco had carried them forward anyways. Setting out the Moby's resting place and always welcoming and sending off their siblings, looking like the blaze in the dark everyone had desperately needed, and just when things were looking up, Marco was gone.

"Izou, I couldn't stay. I was…" He seems to shrink into himself, in a gesture Izou has never seen. "I was dying. Everything was just killing me."

Dying? Izou shakes his head now, angry.

"Why didn't you talk to us, we could've helped!" The man explodes. "Marco, you didn't even say goodbye! We searched for you for months!"

"Because I wanted to-!" There's something shaky there, uneasy and vulnerable in ways that Izou would've never chalk up to his elder brother. "Because I… didn't think I was coming back, Izou."

"What…?" Izou doesn't like how small his voice sounds, he doesn't like what Marco's implying. It's a sledgehammer. It's taking a breath in a room with no oxygen. It's realizing you're about to drown. Marco's confession slices right through Izou's clouding anger and leaves only cold, cold dread in its wake.

(Not Marco, no way.)

"I crashed near an island in the calm belt, Luffy - Ace's little brother, you remember him?" Izo nods, how could one forget that boy? He'd arrived at the war via flying warship, followed by the strangest combination of allies. Izou has ever witnessed.m The rookie had been the only one able to free Ace. The burst of Conqueror's Haki had just been the cherry on top. "He was on the island training."

"You've been sailing with him," Izo deduces, and okay, he still doesn't like it, but Ace's little brother, well, Pops orders had been to protect him at all cost. Some unhappiness bleeds through anyways because Marco sighs tiredly, rubbing his eyes and masking his face from view.

"I didn't join his crew, Izou."

"Righ, you just travel with them on their ship and go on adventures with them and probably fight for them. Totally different."

"I love him," Marco voices out. It comes out slowly, almost like a secret, like a resignation -like he means it. Izou's never seen Marco in love, but it's impossible to not recognize it once he sees it. "Luffy is the most brilliant, happiest, most ridiculous person I've ever met, and I still think it's unreal. I'm half sure Ace would try to set me on fire, but I love him."

Jozu leaves the infirmary dejected. He's been putting up a strong front for their younger siblings, but Marco knows the phantom pains from his missing arm are hitting him really hard. Marco had to talk to him because he refuses to be genuine with his discomfort with the nurses, who are frustrated beyond belief and working around the clock trying to heal the incurable.

Haruta keeps him updated about Blackbeard's movement. Still, often his reports bring him to tears, and Marco's had to stop several people from leaving in an impulse that is undoubtedly going to get them killed. Through his stubbornness and authority, Marco stands in between his siblings and the territories they swore to protect as they fall into Blackbeard's hands one by one. Jozu punches him in the face when the island where his baby cousin lives is ravaged, but he doesn't leave either.

Marco carries the weight of captain on his shoulders, though no one calls him that, not even himself in his mind. (Marco's never going to be able to fill in for the gigantic shoes his Pops left behind, he can only try and fail).

Izou blames himself for not stopping Ace. As Ace's former commander, the crossdresser believes he should've been able to influence him more effectively if only he'd tried harder. (Marco is very much in tune with the feeling, but as his brother cries, Marco stays silent. His own pain will offer no comfort.)

Namur is the first commander to leave the remains of the Moby, perhaps because he's the best equipped to leave along with Marco. The blonde is devastated to see him go, and he's ashamed by the longing that pours into him at the disappearing shadow.

(I want to leave too.)

All-day, every day, Marco exists within the walls of his ruined home and listens to his brother's pains and regrets. In the darkness of the nights, he faces their judgment, whether these were spoken out loud is irrelevant. Marco knows them too well. Around the clock, he worries about food and money and provisions and role calls. At first, the constant buzzing and exertion are soothing in their familiarity, but when a week turns into a month and then two, even Marco's Devil Fruit cannot keep him on his feet. He still has shed no tears since the funeral, but he knows it's there. He knows how full of anguish he is by how empty he feels.

There are several incidents, break downs and arguments, and tragedies that put the idea of leaving into his mind. In the end, he flies away with a heavy heart, a guilty conscience, and unprompted. When Luffy asks him why he left, Marco has so many answers he cannot voice any because each is just as important and heart wrenching, and he doesn't dare utter them out loud. He couldn't trust himself to explain correctly, and he's admittedly terrified of Luffy's judgment. Especially when Rusukaina had become a place where Marco could worry not about such things.

But before his ill-intended flight to that island, Marco traveled far and wide. Eventually, he went home.

It's as cold and miserable as Marco remembers it, and if he is looking for something, he does not find it there.

Marco doesn't get out of bed one day.

His mind is filled with bird perches and books and stupid shovel talks, and he's trying to not think how right Luffy had been in his descriptions of his Nakama. He tries to not compare the Moby Dick with the Sunny, but it's uncomfortably complex.

(What tortures Marco the most is how sometimes, it's almost like Marco can forget and how dare he.)

No one in the Straw Hat Crew looks towards him for guidance or help, Luffy's crew seems to have decided that it's Marco who needs to be cared for.

On a morning when Luffy's fallen asleep on watch at Marco's prompting, the first few rays of sunshine bring forth song from deep in him. Phoenixes are dearly related to music, but Marco hasn't felt the urge to sing in years. He doesn't think much about it as the first few notes come alive in the dawn, but the warmness that spreads inside him is soft, delicate, newborn in its shakiness, and adamant in its desires. It's the feeling of being born, and it takes all that Marco has to keep blue flames under his skin. He snuggles deeper into Luffy's arms, where he's been cradled most of the night. Marco cannot even hate himself right then, not with the melody around them.

A violin joins from the helm, but the musician himself leaves them to their comfort, an illusion of privacy that chokes Marco with emotion that ripples along with the music.

Marco loves his siblings, and he loved his life on the Moby, but there never seemed to be any rest. Marco was always stressed about something. Pop's health, his reckless little brothers, their territories, their allies, the ship, and its provisions… sometimes it felt like everything was going to crush him. Marco had been happy, undoubtedly, and he knows he took those responsibilities all on his own. He knows he should've asked for help. More importantly, the Phoenix knows he could've. Pops worried about Marco just as much as Marco worried about him, but Marco was a creature of fire born along within coldest land, healing that took form amid agonizing pain, and he never wanted to go back to that.

The Moby was Marco's home, a robust and solid existence in between who Marco is and who he had been, cold and frozen in forgotten lands. Marco would have done anything to make it invincible and unconquerable. In fact, he did.

Yet, the Moby lays ruined anyways.

He struggles to explain such a thing to Izou without making his brother think he's not loved, but Luffy's voice is a strong side of him, and Marco needs to do this.

When he sees Luffy next, his back is a tapestry of pain and humiliation that Marco notices only after he squeezes him a bit too tight. He can count on one hand the number of times he's seen Luffy recoil from pain, none of them have been good. Marco is immediately on guard.

"Let me see." The sand is warm where it slips into his sandals, still a couple of yards from the sea where Luffy's felt him coming. What a strange power.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it." The raven tries to deny making a disap, taking a few steps back, but his state is betrayed by Chopper's frantic figure trying to catch up to him.

"Luffy!" The reindeer is clearly in a hurry, fast in his most animal-looking form, and fully equipped to deal with an injury. It puts Marco's teeth on edge.

Marco, there's flames coming out of your pocket!

The doctor raises sand where he comes to a halt next to them, and he examines Marco curiously, his eyes spark in recognition.

"Mystery Bird!" he exclaims, "thank god, I could really use some help with Luffy." He sends a mutinous look towards his captain. "Maybe, he'll listen to you and stay still!" Marco grabs the hem of Luffy's red kimono, from where dirty bandages are peeking through, now that he's paying attention.

"Off."

"Ooohhh," Luffy smiles mischievous, and maybe if his burning vivre card wasn't front and center, and Marco hadn't once again flow desperately across the sea over the younger pirate's possible demise, he might have been tempted.

"Not that type of off," he does smile at Chopper's embarrassed wail, "something's wrong with your back. Show me."

"Chopper already treated it, it's fine," Luffy whines.

"It's most definitely not fine," the reindeer cuts in. "Marco should check it over. Hopefully, his flames can do something to prevent scarring. Honestly, you should've taken it easier in prison! You cannot be injured when we take down Kaido. Though maybe we should head at least closer to camp." Marco looks around at the reindeer's wary tone, they are pretty in the open.

Prison? His mind supplies, but Marco nods.

"What happened?"

"I wasn't there when he got the injuries on his back," Chopper informs as Luffy climbs to sit on Marco's shoulder. It's a completely childish gesture, and if by the way he pulls at Marco's hair, is done entirely in protest. "But throwing himself to those prisoners with the unknown disease didn't help anything. I've been stressing out about a possible infection for days."

"Luffy, did you purposely throw yourself against people with a contagious disease?"

"They were being cowards and had to be taught a lesson." He leans so far back that he throws Marco off-balance, but the blonde is experienced enough to rearrange his next step on time lest they both end up eating sand. "But maaan did that hurt, I thought for a minute I was going to die but Chopper was there and it was okay! Shishishishi!"

"We tried to stop him," Chopper sweat drops guiltily. Marco rubs his face with one hand, and talks himself out of strangling Luffy.

"I'm sure you did," the older man assures gently. He told Izou Luffy gave him a feeling of peace. What the hell had Marco been thinking?

The red kimono falls away, and Marco's breath hitches at the number of bandages, all wrapped around Luffy's torso up to the base of his neck. He is slow and careful as he removes them with Luffy sitting on his lap, asking him about his brothers. Chopper left to assure the rest of their crew that Luffy is okay, but Marco would rather wait for the commotion to die down before he makes an appearance.

"I only managed to see Izou and Jozu," Marco admits.

"How come?" Well, I thought you died.

"...I missed you." The younger man laughs and calls Marco sappy, but looks decidedly pleased with himself. Telling Luffy Marco's come back because he is worried about the younger pirate is the best way to get kicked out of this country.

Marco's heart goes cold at what the bandages are hiding. Deep grooves and peaks eat away at sinuous muscles and discolored patches of skin. Like a mountain range, it's jagged and unpredictable, and Marco's fingers dip into the furrows left behind, watching idly as skin peels off at the edges. It paints hell all over Luffy's shoulder blade, and it flows down like a waterfall down his back, a smattering of raw flesh where the bones' movements upset the skin. His shoulder blades and the lower spine in particular. Marco did hear something about Luffy being in a labor camp. Marco's lips are pulled downwards, and he's glad Luffy cannot see his expression.

"Was this Kaidou?"

"Nah," the voice is flippant, "that's from when they dragged me from the town to the prison. Or so they say, I wasn't really awake for it," Luffy answers while running a hand through his scalp. Marco follows his movements, and Luffy hums a little as the blonde's own fingers run through dirtied locks. Eventually, his experienced digits find what they're looking for, the jagged knot of scar tissue hiding in Luffy's hairline, traveling from his brow in a lengthened z pattern passing behind his ear and peeking through the back of his neck. His fingers freeze on the scar. It's distinct by how the skin isn't giving in as the rest of Luffy. Almost like glue that has been left outside too long, and it's manageable but clumped together. The skill is thin and tender, the scar is reasonably new. Luffy shuffles a little on top of Marco, a hipbone digging into him momentaneously, and then the younger man says, almost sheepishly: "...that was Kaido."

Marco's thumb reruns the length of the scar, and his brain is clearly sending him a message, but Marco's not sure how to process it. He cannot confirm without truly examining, but… Cranial fracture? Fissure? Definitely a concussion. Head Trauma, undoubtedly, as well.

(Luffy could've died instantly from such a blow.)

Marco remembers the vivre card bursting in flames, for a minute,.The Phoenix had thought nothing had remained. It hadn't been the building up to fire like when Luffy faced Katakuri or Cracker or even Big Mom. It had been hard, fast, and sudden, and as it had slowed, Marco was sure only ashes would remain. That was too close.

Go, Marco. Just... promise me you'll be back.

Blue fire seeps out of him, ruffling Luffy's hair as his other hand brushes delicately over Luffy's shredded back. Luffy tries to hide it, but the relief he shows is unmistakable.

"You need to meet Tama, Marco," He says suddenly, bursting with energy from where Marco's healing has been lulling him to sleep. Marco holds him and thinks that Luffy is going to be the death of him, which would be quite ironic in a very tragic way.

"Tama?"

"She's a little girl. She was friends with Ace, from when he came to Wano!"

"Is that so?" Marco thinks he's heard something similar before. He allows the usual melancholy sweep by him, but he smiles genuinely at Luffy's enthusiasm. "The people here are brilliant, though I haven't been to Wano in a long time."

"You've been here before?"

"A long time ago," he confirms, "Roger wasn't even King of Pirates, then."

"Shishishishi! You're such an old man."

"If you say so, baby," he laughs at Luffy's expression, "and you still have no manners."

"That's not fair," Luffy tells him, but his eyes have dropped to Marco's mouth, and his flexible body is already rearranging himself to straddle the blonde. Marco tries to keep the smirk off his face, keeping his expression stern and his flaming palms on Luffy's shoulders.

"Pirate," he reminds him mischievously, as his hands travel down Luffy's spine, sinking underneath the kimono towards his asscheeks, fire dissipating as he goes and letting another kind of flame take place. He's a little surprised when firm bare skin meets his palms. Under further exploration, he finds a twisted piece of cloth in between them, which means Luffy's wearing some type of underwear, but it only serves to remind Marco of "a thong?" he chokes out.

"Nu-uh," Luffy denies, rocking into Marco's ever-growing arousal, "it's traditional." He parrots, clearly quoting someone else. Marco's hands clench on Luffy's ass, grinding the other man into him and delighting in the strangled sound he makes. Definitely a thong, he thinks to himself.

Luffy holds on to Marco's shoulders, settling even closer, and his own are pinkish, but at least they're not raw skin anymore. It's enough for Marco to let the other man kiss him. The clearing is vast green, the grass a lushness Marco's only seen in selected corners of the world. Rusukaina had nothing like it, but the setting definitely reminds Marco's of his and Luffy's earliest days.

"Stop thinking," Luffy demands, and his mouth crushes on to Marco. He kisses him in a way that betrays that regardless of how much he prompted Marco to leave, he's been lovingly missed. The older pirate had briefly thought, returning to his siblings, that it should technically be coming home, but…

I'll be back to visit this time.

To visit.

Not to return. This, he thinks, as he enjoys the warmness and solidity of Luffy, and the heat coiling in his belly, this is coming home. Luffy's panting as he breaks the kiss, hands trailing the goosebumps on Marco's arms. He's stunning and powerful, and he's got Marco wrapped around his finger without even knowing it. The raven breathes and exists and rearranges reality with hardly any thought put in. It takes Marco apart every time he gets to make him uncharacteristically quiet.

"I rather think," he muses, as his hands leave Luffy's bottom to twist a nipple, "that it's almost like you missed me." The teasing is lost on Luffy, who smiles widely, a little out of it and says:

"I did!" He mewls out when Marco's mouth takes hold of one of the nubs, swirling his tongue around it and separating only to blow cold air. Luffy shivers. Marco takes ahold of the other one, biting and pulling, knowing Luffy's a sucker for the way they stretch-

"Do you have something against bedrooms?" Cold water would've never been as effective. Marco swivels around, unnecessarily covering Luffy up as the swordsman appears. Fuck.

"Shishishishi! Hi Zoro!" Unsurprisingly, Luffy has no qualms about being caught in a compromising position. Marco tries to muster up some of that attitude. It's not like they were really doing anything wrong, and -he reminds himself grumpily- nothing that Luffy's first mate wasn't already acquainted with either. "What do you mean?" The man shoots Marco a glance but picks up quickly that the blonde hadn't informed Luffy of his previous accidental voyeurism. Zoro seems to ponder on the information for a couple of moments and then shrugs.

"Don't worry about it."

"Look! Marco's back!" Almost as if the green-haired man couldn't see so for himself. Though it makes more sense taking into account that Zoro should technically not have encountered Marco as a human before this.

"I can see that," the former bounty hunter responds neutrally, "he's not a bird anymore." There's something there in his voice, but Marco doesn't know him well enough to be sure what it could be.

"It's good to meet you, personally." He says politely.

"Hmn." The swordsman eyes Marco, up and down, sizing him up, whether as friend or foe is to be determined. His gaze settles on Luffy's delighted face. "Don't get caught again," he throws over his shoulder before walking in the entirely opposite direction he came from. Presumably, to return back to camp.

"Zoro! You're going the wrong way!" Luffy informs loudly, almost in Marco's ear. The Phoenix is absolutely delighted to catch the faint flush that appears on the first mate's neck. He still cannot really believe the green-haired man's complete lack of a directional sense. Zoro turns around, but as he disappears into the foliage, Marco has no doubt he'll be surely lost again soon enough.

Luffy insists on having a party to Marco's return, but the truth is that their supplies are needed, and it's hardly the time. The party gets shrunk to dinner on the night before the raid, and as Marco climbs the Thousand Sunny, he prepares to meet Luffy's crew.

For real, this time.

He's still a little terrified about reliving the disbandment of his previous crew, but knowing that after never stopping as a child, lest he froze. Never stopping as a pirate, lest he died. Never stopping as captain, lest he let someone else die. Marco's found a place inside the captain of the Straw Hats. A place where he can stop, let himself be taken along for the ride. No other direction than for Luffy to become Pirate King.

"C'mon Marco!" Luffy's eyes gleam as he hurries him, his excitement is infectious, and it fills Marco with peace. "Sanji's making loads of food for us. Shishishishi!"

Marco smiles back, lazily but with no hesitation, feeling worry melt away. Things with Luffy are never dull, and he's going to give Marco a heart attack any day now, but in the Sunny, he thinks things always work themselves out.

Marco's had people take care of him, but he's never found a place where he lets people do so. Luffy never asks for anyone's permission to do anything, and his crew is much the same. Here, Marco's found a place where he can rest, or where he'll be forced to if necessary.

Dinner is a chaotic affair, but his thoughts remain unchanged.

A place to rest indeed.

Hiiiii, I have a huge deadline this week which is why my fics are paused but I accidentally wrote this yesterday so here it is 3

If you're a WWW reader, there's a new oneshot for that too! It's called Meant To Be and Tashigi stars in it.

Take lots of care,

Dee