(no subject)
Title: In Memory
Characters: Marco, Luffy, mentions of Ace
Spoilers for chapter 574
In Memory
It was a little like having a ghost in their midst.
A living one.
It came in flashes: an almost familiar smile, a snatch of laughter on the wind. The way his eyes went blank with grief and reminded them all of their loss.
Ace's ghost. Haunting them in the shape of his brother.
They didn't see it at first; Luffy nearly died in their escape from Marinford, and even after he was touch and go for an alarming long time. It wasn't until he started roaming the deck, no longer confined to a bunk in the makeshift infirmary, that they noticed his sometimes striking resemblance to his older brother.
He didn't even really look like Ace.
Except on those still-too-rare occasions when he smiled. Or laughed. Or tilted his head just so. Or wore that expression. Or ate. Or slept. Or stared at the horizon like he knew just beyond it was an adventure as great as his dreams promised.
Ace w- had been... so proud of his little brother. And now it seemed like his memory, or their memory of him, walked in Luffy's footsteps and it ached like losing Ace all over again. Every. Single. Day.
Thank you for loving me.
Two brothers, their captain - father - lost over the course of one year.
There was nothing Marco wanted more than to take off, find that back-stabbing blood-sucking son of the sea scum Teach and finish what Ace had started. But he had living brothers to think of. And a promise, of sorts, to keep.
Don't you dare let that boy die.
He'd failed their father. He'd failed Ace. He couldn't fail Luffy.
And it was presumptuous to think he could do anything for the young pirate. Or that his help would even be needed - Luffy was strong.
He would take his broken heart and wrap it in dreams and promises and memories and the love that carried him from the depths of Hell to an execution platform at the Marines' stronghold, and he would heal, mostly, and he would move on. He would endure.
And eventually, he would thrive.
Characters: Marco, Luffy, mentions of Ace
Spoilers for chapter 574
In Memory
It was a little like having a ghost in their midst.
A living one.
It came in flashes: an almost familiar smile, a snatch of laughter on the wind. The way his eyes went blank with grief and reminded them all of their loss.
Ace's ghost. Haunting them in the shape of his brother.
They didn't see it at first; Luffy nearly died in their escape from Marinford, and even after he was touch and go for an alarming long time. It wasn't until he started roaming the deck, no longer confined to a bunk in the makeshift infirmary, that they noticed his sometimes striking resemblance to his older brother.
He didn't even really look like Ace.
Except on those still-too-rare occasions when he smiled. Or laughed. Or tilted his head just so. Or wore that expression. Or ate. Or slept. Or stared at the horizon like he knew just beyond it was an adventure as great as his dreams promised.
Ace w- had been... so proud of his little brother. And now it seemed like his memory, or their memory of him, walked in Luffy's footsteps and it ached like losing Ace all over again. Every. Single. Day.
Thank you for loving me.
Two brothers, their captain - father - lost over the course of one year.
There was nothing Marco wanted more than to take off, find that back-stabbing blood-sucking son of the sea scum Teach and finish what Ace had started. But he had living brothers to think of. And a promise, of sorts, to keep.
Don't you dare let that boy die.
He'd failed their father. He'd failed Ace. He couldn't fail Luffy.
And it was presumptuous to think he could do anything for the young pirate. Or that his help would even be needed - Luffy was strong.
He would take his broken heart and wrap it in dreams and promises and memories and the love that carried him from the depths of Hell to an execution platform at the Marines' stronghold, and he would heal, mostly, and he would move on. He would endure.
And eventually, he would thrive.