One Piece 1. Chapter 1

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."


	2. Chapter 2

When Marco got over his initial shock that Ace had just left him behind (and that he was acting much too like someone Marco once knew), he realized that he didn't have the faintest of clues as to where Ace might have gone. Huffing in annoyance, Marco quickly changed forms and took off into the sky in search of the little hyper-defensive child. Marco's wish was granted not too long into his flight, but the sight that greeted him made the Lunar Phoenix's stomach turn painfully.

Ace, who Marco just watched get disarmed and forced to the ground by a man that could considered a half-giant if he looked to have the muscle, was surrounded by bandits on all sides, all of whom were wielding some type of anti-magic weapon. What Marco noticed first, however, wasn't Ace, but the pure blood-lust for revenge that was held in the eyes of the bandits. It was that blood-lust that made Marco see red, and before the phoenix could make a coherent thought, he had already charged at Ace's attackers in a flurry of light blue flames and deafening screech.

When Marco came back to his senses, Ace was letting out breathless syllables while staring at him with wide eyes that were just barely trembling. Marco sighed as he changed forms and looked around at the damage he had caused and winched at what he saw. Sure, Marco was strong, but he had temporarily forgotten just why he didn't get into fights. Speaking of which, Marco had to wonder since when did he start charging into things without fully thinking about them? Sure, Marco knew that the bandits didn't stand a chance against him- not for another million years or so- but charging right into things was very unlike him. As Marco turned to Ace, he idly wondered what is was about the child that could make him abandon his common sense and blindly charge into something in a Rage?

"M-Marco…?" Ace managed to get out of his system before his narcolepsy got the better of him and he passed out right there on the spot, freaking Marco out. Marco quickly ran up to Ace and picked him up, making sure to watch out for any serious injury, and began to check over him to figure out what the heck just happened. Marco was truly beginning to freak out, and when he began to hear the soft snores, Marco froze both physically and mentally. Marco blinked and let out a small sigh of relief and clutched the child in his arm protectively, relieved that Ace wasn't hurt. When Marco managed to get out his instincts, Marco frowned and he thought of one thing; why did Ace just fall asleep in the middle of a dangerous place? Did the kid have absolutely no sense of danger or something? When no answer came to Marco's mind, he sighed and sent a cold glare to the few conscious bandits that hadn't gotten charred and they quickly went running to .

Somewhat confident that he wasn't going to get attacked on his way back, Marco set a leisurely pace on his way back to the Newgate Boarding House where he knew there were people waiting for the two of them.

\- Time is a skip -

When Ace managed to wake up, he found himself curled up on a rather soft and comfy bed. Soft, comfy and way to warm. Frowning at that simple fact- he used fire more often than not and could withstand standing in an inferno- Ace kicked off the blankets and sat up, making sure to look around at the room he was in.

The room's only defining factor besides the white wall paint, was the light yellow-brownish wooden bed and white dresser that held a deep blue-purplish wooden symbol. A cross with a crescent moon that was tilted to look like a grin was sitting right there on top of the dresser looking as regal as a wooden statue could.

Ace frowned, why was he at the Old Man's place? Ace shook his head and carefully got onto his bare feet and winced slightly at the coldness of the floors and walked over to the door, opening it slightly to peak out and watched as someone wearing a light pink and purple kimono- the man who had told him about the two kinds of phoenixes- stopped and turned to the door and smiled.

"Ah! You're awake, Ace!" The man sounded a little too happy to Ace and he gulped. "Oh, come here dearie. I'm not going to hurt you. Marco brought you here are you fell asleep." The man watched as Ace frowned and took a step back from the door. "I promise… Ah, by the way, I don't think I properly introduced myself. I'm Izo."

Ace debated on what to do, but finally decided to ask the first question that entered his head. "Why am I here…?" Ace asked since he figured if Marco and Izo were under the Old Man's care, then Marco must have told Izo something. Marco didn't strike Ace as the kind of person who would do something for no reason.

"Marco wanted to make sure you were fine. According to him, you just dropped like a stone while you were about to be attacked…" Izo spoke softly, and Ace almost was feeling himself get lured back into sleep with a light fuzzy feeling. "Are you alright?" Izo's voice snapped Ace out of his thoughts and he stared at Izo with a confused look in his eyes, which Izo caught and clarified what he meant. "You fell asleep in the middle of a fight- are you alright?"

Ace nodded slightly, not fully understanding why would care if he was alright or not since no one had ever cared before except Luffy. However, Luffy was Luffy, and Luffy was an enigma.

"You sure kiddo?" At Ace's nod and slight huff that Izo almost missed, he continued on. "You want anything to eat? I was just on my way to join the family for dinner. Why don't you come along?" Izo extended his hand out for Ace and after a little bit of an internal debate with himself, Ace bolted out of the room and latched onto Izo, almost knocking the sakura-demon look-alike over. Ace buried his face into Izo's kimono and got a strong whiff of cherry blossoms, which only strengthen Ace's determination that Izo was a sakura demon.

When Izo got over his lost sense of balance, he gently rubbed his hand up and down Ace's back, humming softly with a knowing look on his face. "It's alright, Ace" Izo began softly, "We're not leaving you."

"W-what do you mean?" Ace asked after looking up at the man, confusion written plainly across his face.

"You'll see, little one." Izo smiled softly and led Ace down the hallway and into the somewhat giant dining room where there were fifteen people all sitting down at a round table. When one of the people noticed Izo, it was a man with a highly strange hair-style (who the heck puts all their hair in the front of their head?!), he let out a whoop and motioned too two empty seats- one next to him and the other right next to Marco. When Izo took the seat next to the man that wasn't Marco, Ace figured that he was supposed to sit next to Marco. That thought was proved correct with the Old Man told Ace to take a seat and enjoy dinner.

Ace was confused and a little terrified. He was confused because he was taught that eating at a table with other people was something that was only done if you were family and directly invited (which he was invited, but he wasn't family) and he was terrified because he didn't want to let it be known that he was starving.

"Brat, come on over here." The Old Man laughed at Ace's pale face, "Please don't think you can hide your hunger." Ace was confused. His stomach didn't grumble, and despite being starving, Ace was thankfully not as skinny as most of the worse-cases. That was mostly due to being able to have a somewhat reliable food-source as the river and pond Ace normally fished at never fully froze, and when it did it was only an inch or two, and the fish liked to be near the bottom of the pond.

As if sensing Ace's confusion, Newgate continued on. "I'm a father of many who have once lived in poverty and hunger, child. You don't need to be wary of me; I was hoping you would even take up my mark, little one." There was something about that last part that made Ace feel rage inside and made him cast his gaze to the floor. Wasn't Garp his grandfather and wasn't he taking care of Sabo and Luffy? Speaking of which… why did Garp leave Ace on his own? Was it because of his blood? That was the only logical thing Ace could think of. He knew who his parents were- Rouge and Roger. Garp never fully hid it from him, nor did Garp really try to hide it. Roger was the world's devil that was wanted dead. Any and everyone who was related in any form to Roger were wanted dead. Friends, family, neighbors, you named them- if they were related to Roger in any way they were hunted until the government could put their severed head on a pole and paraded it around.

Before Newgate could say anything more, Ace took off out of the dining room and ran straight out of the boarding house and down the streets and into the forest- someplace that Ace knew.

The forest didn't change much. It was green during all times of the year except the months of severe drought and rainfall. During the times of drought, the forest became yellow and brown, and Ace had to be careful of his fire or else he'd start a wildfire that could envelop the entire forest before one could even blink- Ace had done it before and it wasn't fun to try and hide from the firefighters or the government. During the months of sever rainfall, the forest went from being green and brown, to being full of colors.

Bright pink and purple flowers would bloom that would emit a sweet alluring smell that drew animals in to help pollinate it. Light blue and gold flowers would sometimes bloom during the night and Ace was lucky if he got to see one before they closed back up during the early hours of the morning. Sometimes even bright red flowers would bloom, but Ace didn't like those flowers since they emitted a foul smell that repulsed him and seemed to make flies hyper. There were even these little black berries that grew big in the rain and when Ace accidently bit into one, made the sweetest mistake he could have; not only were the berries sweet, but they grew everywhere in the forest and didn't make Ace sick afterwards.

Strangely though, Ace could vaguely remember a time when Sabo and Luffy had tried to eat those berries and got deathly ill. Garp had given all three of them a good scolding before getting the three kids to the hospital and then complaining about the medicine that was going to be needed to make sure that the berries didn't have any other ill side-affects.

In the forest, there were also these bright weird fruits that would grow once a year during the rainy season that were swirly. According to Garp, those fruits were the spawn of the devil (Ace had a laugh with that when people started calling Roger's son the devil's spawn) and should never be eaten for they killed everyone that ate them. It was a shame, really, since Ace thought the fruits looked pretty and greatly wondered what they would taste like.

Ace quickly was pulled out of his remembrance when he ran head-first into one of the oak trees that scattered the forest, and he rubbed his head with a pout. He really needed to stop doing that- going into deep thought while moving around. It would only lead to a concussion one of these days. As Ace was about to run off again, a voice and a hand caught him.

"Ace, wait, yoi!" Marco's voice came forth and Ace almost did a double take. Why the heck was Marco following him around like a little chick? He wasn't a newborn! "What's wrong?" Marco knelt down so he was eye-to-eye with Ace and looked the child in the eyes as he asked the question.

Ace couldn't look at Marco when he knelt down, and felt a little bad for running off without expressing his thoughts, but then again, if the Old Man was anything like Garp, if Ace stated how he truly felt he'd be rejected and that was a fate worse than death to the child. Marco seemed to notice this reluctance to speak and figured out the cause, for he smiled softly and embraced Ace into a hug.

"Pops isn't like Garp, yoi. I assure you that no one is going to harm you." Ace nodded slowly at this and relaxed in the Lunar Phoenix's grip, confused as to what the heck Marco was doing.

"…What are you doing…?" Ace asked shakily, not entirely sure if Marco was speaking the truth. Ace knew that Newgate treated his 'children' with the greatest care Ace had even seen, but that didn't mean there wasn't any ulterior motives.

"Pardon?" Marco seemed confused as to what Ace meant, and when Ace motioned to Marco's arm, he blinked, and before his mind could form a solid thought, he spoke up.

"You don't know what a hug is?"

Ace blushed at this and shook his head. His grandfather had 'hugged' him plenty of times, but almost all of those times it had been painful and ended up with Ace barely holding back tears and screams. When Ace had watched other people get 'hugged', that painfulness was never there, so Ace had assumed that Garp wasn't really hugging him or just didn't know how to control his own strength. Since Garp was always hitting him, Luffy and Sabo, Ace assumed it was the later and not the former. After all, Luffy wasn't always ready to burst into tears when he got hugged by his grandfather.

Marco, on the other hand, was beginning to worry. Just what all had the boy's grandfather done to him? Besides signs of obvious neglect and abuse, Marco was also seeing signs of withdrawal- at least he hoped it was that. Running from people, being cranky around people, only relaxing when an Animal was nearby… Marco was beginning to wonder if Garp should even be allowed custody of children. Maybe he should get the kings help- he had a daughter and understood the fragileness of children. That wasn't to say they were glass, Marco almost chuckled at that for he knew children could be just as resilient as the Life lily- a bright blue and light green flower that could be trampled on and ripped from its roots and still not die.

"Pops wants to give you a place to call home and people to call family, yoi. We're not trying to take away anything from you." Marco lightly rubbed Ace's back and closed his eyes, not entirely sure of what he was doing. Sure, he took care of his brothers, but they were adults (even if pops called them all brats) and Ace was just a child. Izo and Thatch were better at caring for children then he was. Still, when he felt Ace shift to get closer to Marco and relaxed, Marco knew he had to be doing something right- even if he had gone about it in a slightly wrong way.

"… Sorry…" Ace mumbled after a little, and then for the second time that day, his Narcolepsy got the better of him and he passed out blissfully, fully aware that Marco wasn't going to let anything happen to him.

\- This is a skip -

When Ace woke up, he was vaguely aware that he was back in the room he had woken up in earlier since Ace's shoes were still were they were left before Ace had bolted out of the Boarding House. Ace glanced out of the window and saw that the sky was dark, but he could faintly hear the sounds of what Ace assumed were a party going on from the door. Marco's words and Izo's and Newgate's- but Ace was wondering if he should start calling them man 'Pops' as well- floated idly into Ace's mind, and with them, Ace smiled again and curled up into the bed. Feeling that he could trust them, even if it was what he was raised against, Ace closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

\- CHAPTER END -

AzureSea8: Well, here you go!

Mad Y u e: Thanks, and maybe. I don't know if I can summon forth a guardian for you like the people in this story… *sad face* I'd like to, really, but I can't. Besides, reality says I can't have a blue pineapple-headed chicken for a guardian… *sniff* Also, don't mind the typos. I can still understand what your trying to write.

XxFire-PhoenixxX: Here you go, a new chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's corner:** I wish to give a major shout-out to Kurogane Tsubasa for beta-ing this story and pointing out my mistakes!

Also... sorry for taking eons to upload another chapter. My laptop died, I was traveling, and I had school.

Chapter 3

It was early morning when Ace awoke again, and a sweet cinnamon-like smell was wafting through the air making Ace's stomach growl. Blushing at his hunger, Ace looked around where he was in a bit of a daze. The last things he could recall from the previous night were... the old man, a pineapple that could turn into a flaming blue bird, a man that smelled like cherry blossoms, and running off into the forest at some point and then waking up in the bed he was currently in. Frowning, Ace kicked off the covers of the warm bed and walked over to the door, opening it a crack. Peeking out, Ace caught a glimpse of a child who could not be any older than himself running by the room while screeching at the top her lungs that a murderous pineapple was after her. Confused, Ace opened the door and poked his head out completely and looked down the hall to see the man that could turn into a blue flaming bird stalking down the corridor with a scowl set on his face.

Only, he was... pink...

And were those frills Ace saw on his shoes?

"Haruta!" the man called out, "Get your ass over here, now! You're cleaning up the mess you made!"

"No way, you pink pineapple!" the girl turned over, and Ace got a better look at her renaissance-like outfit, which was kind of neat, and stuck out her tongue in a manner very fitting of a little prankster. For once in his life, Ace was actually looking forward to trying to get to know the child and Ace felt himself hopping dearly that the girl wouldn't back-stab him or make fun of him for not being able to summon any kind of guardian.

"If I catch you anywhere near my room, you will regret it!" the man, whose name was on the edge of Ace's tongue, shouted and then noticed Ace and offered a small smile. "Good morning, Ace. How did you sleep?"

"Well, I think..." Ace frowned as he spoke slowly, unsure of what to do. He was so used to waking up by himself in that little tent of his that he had forgotten how to interact in the morning around other humans. "Uh..." Ace let his voice trail off, unsure of how to ask what the man's name was without seeming rude. After all, isn't it highly rude to forget the name of one of your hosts...?

"That's good, I was going to wake you up for breakfast and see if you wanted to come down and eat with all of us, yoi." the man knelt down and ruffled Ace's hair, causing Ace to swat the hand away and try to fix his semi-always messy, untamed hair. This caused a chuckle out of the man and Ace resisted the urge to pout- no need to give the man more ammo to laugh at. When Ace was done fixing his hair, he followed the man to the kitchen and had a seat offered to him that was next to the giant old man, and Ace had a really bad nagging feeling that he was forgetting something.

That nagging feeling was confirmed when the old man had asked if Ace had thought any on his offer; an offer in which Ace couldn't recall having ever heard. The old man had laughed rather warmly when Ace just stared at him with wide, open eyes. The man then, much to Ace's surprise, asked the man who could turn into a flaming bird to bring a cup of warm tea and give it to Ace.

"I don't want to stunt your growth with a cup of coffee, so you'll have deal with the tea. After breakfast, why don't you head to school and think a bit more when you're more awake?" the old man spoke warmly as a cup of tea was placed in front of Ace alongside a plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage.

"Sorry, yoi. Thatch ran out of bacon the other day and hasn't bothered to get more." Ace took a big gulp of the tea after making sure that the tea wasn't going to burn his tongue and began trying to work on why he felt like he was missing something. It was really getting on his nerves.

The rest of breakfast went by in a little bit of a blur for Ace. He could recall Haruta getting picked up by a man with a weird frontal hairstyle and was scolded for trying to run around with the silverware and getting scolded by him for running with full plate of food on her head, to which Haruta laughed and said she hadn't spilled anything yet. There was this gentleman who had two swords sheathed on his hip and he tried to make pleasant talk with Ace, to which he felt a little bad about not being more awake and being unable to pay attention, and then there was that one creepy man who had decided that wearing a shirt was too much of a hassle and let his rather messy chest hair show along with his rotten yellow teeth that were a few shy of a full set.

Ace's mind sort of blanked out after the guy tried to talk to him, and Ace thought he heard the name 'Teach' once or twice. When Ace finally managed to gather the remnants of his thoughts, he found himself staring at his backpack. Shaking his head, and trying his best to act like he hadn't been spaced out, Ace grabbed his bag and took off in the direction the school was, unaware that a giant flaming bird was following close behind.

In fact, Ace had managed to get through his first period, Mathematics, without noticing the giant blue bird that had nestled into the back of the room peacefully. It was his second period of the day, Gym, when he noticed the bird, and he yelped when the bird turned into that pineapple-like man from the old man's house.

"Wasn't your schedule different yesterday, yoi?" the man asked while looking around the semi-small gymnasium that Ace's school had. Sadly, there wasn't anything for a bird to do that involved stretching his wings. There was enough room for him to fly but Marco didn't feel like spinning himself sick by going in circles.

"…The schedule depends on what class the teacher tells us to go to next... Who are you?" Ace mumbled, promptly freezing when he realized that he had just blurted his question out for the world to hear. Such a question was highly rude, especially after having been introduced not too long ago, and would most likely offend the man. Ace knew from experience that when people get offended, they tend to get angry and if Ace wanted any chance of living, he couldn't raise a single hand against one of Newgates children- the giant old man was highly protective of his 'kids' after all.

The man laughed at this and shook his head while saying something about being 'adorable' and ruffled Ace's hair. "The name is Marco, yoi. I'm your Lunar Phoenix."

"No, you're just Marco..." Ace frowned, not fully understanding why he said that he was Ace's. "I don't have a Lunar Phoenix." Ace huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, staring up at Marco with eyes that spoke volumes about his disbelief in Marco's words. Marco, however, just chuckled and shook his head a bit. The little child was just far too fun to be around, Marco decided. Sure, the kid was a pain, but at least the kid had guts to stand up in what he believed in- something that little kids didn't seem to have much of these days.

"Yes. I'm just Marco the Lunar Phoenix; Last of my kind, no less, yoi." Marco spoke so nonchalantly that Ace had to wonder about the truth behind what the pineapple-man before him had been saying. He could, yes, remember this man turning into a bird- a bright blueish yellow one at that- and he could remember spending the day with the man... But he couldn't remember the conversations... He knew he had some kind of conversation with the man- at the school, while Ace was looking up the tree at the man who was perched on it with a lazy smile and equally lazy eyes- but Ace couldn't, for the life of himself, recall what the man had told him.

"You're not helping your case. I wouldn't contract with someone who's the last of their kind. At least, I wouldn't without knowing it." Ace frowned at the loud laugh that came from Marco, and Ace was sure now that the man wasn't fully sane. There was no way the man could have been sane. Why would he laugh when Ace was being serious? He hadn't contracted any Phoenix! Even more so, Ace would rather die than be bound by a contract!

Wait... Was it that weird practice thing that Marco had Ace do? The one where he felt this strange feeling that wasn't his? Was that the bond? Is that what the man had done? Made some sort of mock-contract? What did the Phoenix get out the contract? If Ace wanted to, he could theoretically turn the bird into the nearby kingdom. They had wanted a Phoenix the last Ace had heard (and what a pain getting information from there had been! The giant walls surrounded that kingdom were well guarded and outsiders weren't welcomed inside!). Phoenix's were supposed to be smart and highly dangerous when they were being contracted with because of their free nature, so no matter which way Ace tried to figure it, he just couldn't comprehend the fact that any sane person who claimed to be a Lunar Phoenix (a bird rarer than a Solar Phoenix, if Ms. Robin's history classes taught him anything other than she was his favorite teacher) would just willingly become bound to a person, much less a child.

23"Well, we might be smart, but despite everything you may have heard, Lunar Phoenixes are actually much more hot-blooded than Solar Phoenixes, yoi." Marco lightly scratched the little stubble of a beard he had, and Ace felt a flash of jealousy hit him- an accent meant he wasn't from around here, which meant the man travelled. Perhaps a lot. "I'm the oddball of the group. That being said, as I said, yoi, I'm the last Lunar Phoenix; Solar Phoenixes are much more plentiful and what not, but they don't have the exact healing powers we Lunar's do..." Marco seemed far-off in thought, and Ace was left feeling a bit inadequate. Then, after a moment of silence, Ace realized something. He hadn't said of what he had just been thinking out loud.

"No need to," Marco gave a weird kind of chuckle, "You wear your thoughts on your face, yoi. Besides, we can sort of feel each other's emotions the closer we are, yoi."

"Meaning...?" Ace frowned, not sure if he liked the idea of having another person's feelings placed upon him.

"Not much, yoi." Marco shrugged, "The closer we are, the more we feel the others feelings. We've got an incomplete bond, but I don't think either of us wants a complete bond. Now," Marco looked around the hallway the two were at, "I think you've got a class to go too, yoi." When Marco turned back into his avian form, Ace racked his brain trying to think about what he was doing before he realized that he was still standing in the middle of a hallway in his school. Panicking, Ace secured his backpack to his back and bolted off the direction of where the gym lockers were, only to find the teacher telling everyone about the track runs they were going to have to run.

"Ace, get your firefly butt here!" The teacher called out when he noticed him, "You've got an extra twenty laps. Be done before the end of class. Now, get changed!" With that, Ace was free to change into his track clothing and ask a fellow student (one who didn't try to avoid him like the plague; Marco's presence helped with that quite a bit) about what was going on.

"Nothing much, just the teacher being busy with soccer and softball stuff." The student shrugged their shoulders, "I think teacher won't notice if you skip a lap or two. We're supposed to be running without a single break. Pace yourself."

That was the most any student had ever talked to him without actually throwing an insult in his face. Either the student was new, or having Marco was doing much more than he had first thought. This was actually making Ace feel bad, because now it felt like he was using Marco to make friends which was something that Ace didn't want to do. He didn't like it one bit, and when he got a chance, Ace was going to talk to Marco about that... Perhaps keeping his distance would be best? ... No, the damage was already done. Having Marco keep his distance wouldn't do anything to help him or hurt him. Everyone knew about the Guardian-less kid who suddenly had a guardian. Everyone had to know. There was no way to get around that fact.

This brought Ace to a realization that had a cold chill running up and down his spine. If everyone was going to know by the end of the week... then would that mean that Garp would find out sooner rather than later? Ace knew Garp kept in touch with someone in town, but who was the big question. If Garp found out that Ace suddenly got a guardian, then Garp would come to investigate. This would lead to one of two things happening; Ace being forced to move because of his blood-relation to a certain man and having his blood magic (and since a guardian can call upon their summoner's blood magic, this was a liability) or it meant that Garp would let him see his family again- the one still alive that is, Luffy. The possibility was more in favor of him being forced to move, however, as the blood magic of any member of the D family was highly dangerous, and Ace's wasn't an exception. He was just unfortunate enough to get his father's blood magic of creating things akin to fiery black holes instead of his mother's blood magic of healing.

Marco's cold beak nudging against Ace's cheek snapped him out his thoughts, and Ace made a resolve right then and there. He would make sure he doesn't get spaced out any more than he already had been. It was not only dangerous, but if Garp was going to come back (on a slight off-chance that the man actually cared at all for Ace) then not being spaced out would actually save his live. Garp wasn't known for his gentleness after all.

Getting changed into his gym uniform and making his way to the track with Marco flying above him, Ace was greeted by Kidd who, for once, was actually being somewhat kind. Insults were expected, it's what Kidd had been doing ever since he found out Ace couldn't summon a guardian, but the act of actually greeting Ace as he walked on by had his floored.

"What, never hear of kindness?" Kidd scoffed and then yelped as his familiar guardian used his power of Room to swap Kidd's goggles with a trashcan. This prompted a fight between the two and Ace bid the two a good day, which felt completely strange as he had never had anyone to say 'have a good day' to, and managed to make it to the track right before the teacher blew the whistle that signaled the start of running.

Running. That's all that Ace did for the full hour and a half that Ace had his gym class. Ace ran and Marco flew behind him (albeit, it looked like Marco was fighting to stay slow enough that he stayed with Ace, but Ace also noticed that the man seemed to be in bliss at being able to fly to his heart's content). Truthfully, Ace didn't mind the running. The light wind and the warm sunlight was welcoming to Ace and he couldn't help but be lulled into a sort of trace while he ran. His mind cleared and he found himself just downright enjoying the bit of freedom that the track gave him. Nothing mattered to him anymore. Lunar Phoenixes, Garp, the old man's offer of a family, his hatred of people, his distaste for adults, his hatred of his biological father…

None of it mattered to him as he ran besides a flying Marco, and Ace found himself looking forward to whatever the rest of the day could possibly bring.


End file.
