Fireworks

Summary: Marco, Thatch, and Ace setting fireworks off. Marco begins to wonder why he even bothered to befriend the pyromaniac and the trouble maker. After all, nothing seems to go right when they're around. Especially when fireworks are involved.
Warning: ooc, AU, mild swearing.

XxXxX
"Fireworks are a work of beauty. That is, until they blow someone up. Then it's just a work of art."
"That… makes no sense."
"Ah, contrariwise, it makes perfect sense. Especially when you add the amount of mud it takes to clean up the mess. Then multiply that by the cups on the wire, divided by bird-eating watermelons, and once again multiplied by a few red strings, some silver gold, and eight katanas, your resulting answer will be ART!"
-Me and Ivy
XxXxX

Marco didn't want to be anywhere near them tonight. He wanted to be at home with his thirteen other brothers and Oyaji, not stuck here with these two bumbling idiots. Ace and Thatch each carried two boxes filled with fireworks, both wearing huge mischievous grins that made Marco feel uneasy. Finally reaching the small, old, abandoned warehouse, they set their boxes down and took in deep breathes of the warm July air. After a moments peace, the two trouble makers tore into the boxes and brought out several small fireworks. Marco watched from the sidelines as they lit and tossed the Flower fireworks, which spun in circles before giving a 'POP' as its last breath. They lit a few off, and finally Ace turned to the quiet blond. "Come on, Marco! Throw some with us!"

"I'm just gonna sit on the side for now," he commented as he gave a small glare. "I don't want a repeat of last year." Thatch shuddered at the memory.

XxXxX Flashback XxXxX

Marco wasn't gonna let Ace anywhere near the fireworks. Not after last years disaster where the teen nearly burned three houses down in a freak accident. Ace and Thatch were practically jumping with excitement, and the freckled male went to grab a firework when he suddenly noticed all the boxes of fireworks were gone. Looking to Marco, he gave a smile and held out his hand. "Marco, give me a firecracker."

"No." Ace's smile faltered lightly.

"What?"

"I said no." Marco continued to stare forward, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Marco, please give me a firecracker…"

"No." Thatch gave a gulp. Denying Ace a firecracker? That couldn't be good. 'This is not going to end well,' Thatch thought to himself. Ace spotted a firecracker in one of Marco's hands. "I'm not having a repeat of last year. Or the year before that." Ace rolled his eyes and reached to grab the firecracker from Marco, but the blond pulled it out of his reach and the freckled male gave a scowl.

"Come on, Marco. Give me one."

"I said no." Ace made another attempt to grab the item out of his friend's hand, but the blond kept the item just out of the teen's reach. Within a few minutes, Thatch watched from the sidelines as Ace and Marco were now tackling and wrestling each other on the ground, Marco doing a damn good job of keeping Ace away from the exploding item.

"Give it!"

"I said no, yoi! Get off me!" And as they wrestled each other, neither noticed that the item was accidentally lit, and rolled over to the other eight boxes that were hiding nearby. Thatch hit the deck just in time as they all went off. Screamers, cracklers, flashers, poppers, legal aerials, and fountains created a light so bright and hot, Thatch thought that the sun itself had suddenly landed right in front of him. He silently prayed his two friends were okay and that they got out of the way before all hell broke loose. Several minutes later, the fireworks died out and all that was left was ashes and a screen of smoke. The male lifted his head from behind the rock he was behind and saw no signs of his friends anywhere. Quickly leaving the rock, his heart raced when he called for his friends and neither answered.

"Marco? Ace?" There was no sign of them at all and panic now gripped the male tightly. "Marco! Ace!" 'Oh god,' the thought as he shook lightly. ' What if their bodies were blows apart? What if their bodies disintegrated in the heat?' Okay, so maybe the heat from the fireworks wasn't THAT hot, but still his mind raced with worst case scenarios. "MARCO! ACE!"

"That. Was. Awesome!" Thatch whipped around to see Ace and Marco standing there to the side, both covered in black soot from head to toe. Marco looked like he could either kill someone or fall down dead any second. Ace on the other hand was grinning ear to ear with used-up sparklers in hand. Thatch let out a breath of relief and wiped away tears that pricked at his eyes. "Huh? What's with you? You get burned or something?"

"I thought you two had…" Ace suddenly felt guilty for making his brother worry and opened his mouth to say something when Marco turned to him and started to strangle him.

"You IDIOT! How stupid are you? You could have killed us both! Look how worried you made Thatch! I should–" Marco suddenly fell over, unconscious. Thatch seemed extremely worried, but Ace grinned.

"Don't worry, he'll be fine. This happened to me before, and all he'll have tomorrow is a really bad headache. Also, his ears may ring for a few days. But otherwise he'll be fine. So," Ace clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Anymore fireworks left?"

XxXxX End of Flashback XxXxX

Marco finally gave into Ace's whining and threw a fireworks with them, even giving a smile when things seemed to be going pretty good. So far no fires had broke out, no one had gotten injured, no freak accidents happened. 'Maybe this year nothing bad will go wrong,' he thought, throwing another firework. He looked around and noticed Thatch had disappeared. 'Probably using the bathroom.' Ace threw the last small firework and turned to one of the boxes, digging around as he searched for a fountain or screamer. "Having fun, Marco?"

"Surprisingly, ye– Wait. All these fireworks are legal right? Because I really don't want to end up with a ticket today. I still have to pay off all your other tickets you've somehow managed to accumulate over the past few months."

"What are you talking about? Of course these are legal. Well, most of them anyway," he muttered the last part of the sentence under his breath, but Marco didn't fail to to catch it.

"Ace?"

"Hm?" Said boy looked up trying to look innocent.

"You got illegal fireworks?" The freckled male looked at the ground as he kicked a pebble.

"Well… I didn't… Thatch did." He pointed to the brunette male who was off in the distance trying to set up said illegals.

"Oi! Don't snitch, you ass-tard!" Marco gave a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, already feeling a headache coming on.

"Ace, nothing better catch on fire. Or so help me, I really will murder you."

"Oh please," the boy scoffed, throwing an arm around Marco's shoulder. "I'm wounded by the lack of faith you have in me." Thatch came running towards them, signaling that the fuse was lit and the fireworks were ready to go off. Ace gave a smile and Marco suddenly felt uneasy. "Just sit back and watch the show!"

Marco walked out of the hospital with multiple bandages wrapped around various body parts and an arm in a sling, a very annoyed and frustrated expression worn on his exhausted face. Thatch– who had one arm in a cast, part of his right face bandaged up, and his neck in a brace– gave the best grin he could in his current state. Marco's eyes wandered from him to the uninjured and smirking Ace; his eyes not failing to show the anger and harm that he felt like dealing to the freckled teen. Marco walked right past the two as he ignored them.

"Oh come on, Marco! Cheer up! At least I didn't catch anything on fire like I said, right?" Thatch limped between the two.

"He's got a point." Marco suddenly turned to his injured friend.

"He blew up the building, Thatch. It exploded. That's worse than catching something on fire!"

"Well it's not like I did it on purpose!"

"You always never do it on purpose, Ace! You're accident-prone when it comes to fire! You're worse than your brother!" He let out a frustrated breath. "Why did I even bother to befriend a pyromaniac? I should have known you would cause so much trouble. Wait until Oyaji here's about this one." Ace and Thatch slowed their walking down until Marco was out of earshot, Ace leaning in towards Thatch.

"Ten bucks I say Oyaji laughs it off."

The busted up Thatch only smirked and nodded in agreement. "And if he doesn't you have to buy him sake for the week."

"Deal."

XxXxX
Yet another dare from Ivy. She's really been pushing the dares, I've noticed. Huh… Maybe I should dare her to do something. XD Hope it was somewhat alright. (I'm trying to work on my grammar and sentence structure... I can't get it down. DX) I was kind of distracted by this delicious cookie I'm eaten. X3 Tel me what you thought? Please?