Portgas D. Ace X Reader - The boy from the church

21

Ace took a deep breath in and decided to reveal his identity. It seemed odd to him that Marco hadn't recognized him already, but, to his defense, he wasn't wearing his glasses. Despite the confrontation between the two parties, the boy didn't prepare for an altercation, so he was skeptical about showing himself to his brother, especially since he had been searching for him for months on end, investigating the case along with Smoker and Tashigi, so a wave of pressure in his chest was mocking him, until he decided to give himself in.

However, not too long before he was about to speak, Marco put his glasses on and squinted his eyes over in Ace's direction, then he tilted his head to the side.

"Wait... Ace?!" Marco cried, finding a similarity in the color of the boy's eyes to his brother's.

"Surprise, I guess...?" Ace smiled at the corner of his mouth, with irony, but was still ready to get the most painful punch in the face of his whole life. 

He closed his eyes shut and prepared for impact after he noticed the blonde man coming with an alarming speed towards him, but, instead of a punch, Marco bent down to his level and embraced his brother in a tight hug. 

"I'm so glad you're okay... How did you...? You know what, that doesn't matter." Marco stumbled between his words with a concerned look on his face. "How did you get here? Where have you been? Man, I have so many questions, is Mihawk really protecting you?" 

Ace coughed because his mouth got dry, and he was still shaking from every muscle, since he didn't recover from the shock of seeing Marco there. The boy wondered why Mihawk didn't kill him already, or why he hadn't called the police yet, but, above everything, he was also nervous to meet his brother for the first time after they got separated. The blonde man handed Ace a glass of water, and told him that it's safe to take his outside clothes off, but he was actually just hesitant to answer any of Marco's questions, for the sake of his own safety. After all, their meeting might all just be a big misunderstanding of Mihawk's orders, however, both of them seemed to get along pretty well in the beginning.

"I... don't know what this is about. Mihawk just told me to come here, but he didn't specify that you were already here." Ace looked down at his shoes, pretending to be clueless about the situation.

"Yeah, no, I get it, you survived for a long time, and, by the way, this is coming from me, Marco, your brother, not your enemy, just to be clear."

Ace glanced over at the blonde man, unsure about what he meant there. But instead of continuing an awkward conversation, the boy suggested they turn on the TV, to see if there's any news about Teach's situation. They watched regular television for a few minutes, before a breaking news message interrupted their channel. 

The headline said something about a shooting happening at Whitebeard's hostel, and as soon as Marco read the title, he quickly jumped up from the bed and rested his arms onto his knees, bending down a little bit, as he waited in silence for the news reporter to break the news about the death count. When he heard the name 'Marshall D. Teach' being listed as the only victim, he covered his face with his palms and let out a small groan and started going around the room in circles, as Ace was staring at him, clueless about what he should do. For him, Teach's death was a victory. For Marco, on the other hand, there was another member of his family gone, and another grief he had to endure.

When they expected less, Mihawk came right through the door, gasping for air, indicating that he had been running from the crime scene ever since he got there. He noticed the two men being in the same room together, with none of them dead, and sighed in relief. He threw his coat on the bed and called someone on his phone immediately, without saying anything to the boys.

Marco started breathing with more and more effort, until he finally broke down in tears, then he turned to Ace in a menacing way, looking like he wanted to hurt him. The boy hid behind Mihawk, who was waiting on his call to be picked up, and Marco yelled as loud as he could in that moment, with all that pressure in his chest and the knot in his throat from hearing the devastating news, but ended up squeaking his brother's name with a little voice crack. Mihawk stopped him from getting violent, by lightly pushing him away and making a sign to shut up while he talked on the phone.