"Aye. It's a type of jasmine though, so not too strange."
His stomach clenched as Ace explained the rest though. He wanted to throw up. Wow when Ace said everything, he pretty much meant it, huh.
Was it true? In which universe was the real question...
No, that was avoiding it. Which was exactly what Marco wanted to do. Feh.
Why would anyone come to Marco for the truth? He lied with gusto for a reason, after all. For fun, to protect people, just because. The truth was overrated so far as the phoenix was concerned. He didn't know how to answer Ace right away.
"Time... is squished to a point here. I met a version of you when I was first here who was a marine in our version of his world. Same snarky bastard you are, but for all that... a marine." It had driven Marco insane. To hear Ace who died protecting Luffy speak well of his own murderer?
"That's not... a question I can answer, Ace. I don't mean to give you unrealistic hope, but I thought for sure I'd never see Thatch again." He sipped more of the tea. "My son has come and gone from here four times. Espio's gone and come back two or three times, and one of the times, his whole section of the universe was destroyed." Is Ace dead? How can Ace ask that if he's there next to Marco breathing, drinking tea, and worrying about a future that might never come. Thatch...
Fuck. What was he to do with the lot of them?
"I told you, in my time, Pops is gone and I've become captain. If you were still in my world for that, I'd make you be captain, and you'd have to fight me forever to refuse that position."
Marco looked out the stars and took another sip of his tea. It would be morning soon, he expected. Sunrise. A new dawn for a discussion of a new era. But that period where it was still so dark out that every little light seemed to be the only one for all of eternity around them. Marco hated that time of day. Was it any wonder? It seemed much too like Blackbeard's hour. Dark. When the moon was set, and the sun had died. And Marco wasn't bright enough to match either of them. If Whitebeard was the moon, laughing and guarding, then Ace had always blazed like the sun, and Marco was a tiny speck of a star. A single sparkle in the endless black, and all he could try to do was to survive and protect the others. Exist for the others. Meh. It was still too early for even diurnal birds to be up and hunting.
"I can't take you back to my time, that is true. But does it matter? Will it change how you live here and now?"
no subject
His stomach clenched as Ace explained the rest though. He wanted to throw up. Wow when Ace said everything, he pretty much meant it, huh.
Was it true? In which universe was the real question...
No, that was avoiding it. Which was exactly what Marco wanted to do. Feh.
Why would anyone come to Marco for the truth? He lied with gusto for a reason, after all. For fun, to protect people, just because. The truth was overrated so far as the phoenix was concerned. He didn't know how to answer Ace right away.
"Time... is squished to a point here. I met a version of you when I was first here who was a marine in our version of his world. Same snarky bastard you are, but for all that... a marine." It had driven Marco insane. To hear Ace who died protecting Luffy speak well of his own murderer?
"That's not... a question I can answer, Ace. I don't mean to give you unrealistic hope, but I thought for sure I'd never see Thatch again." He sipped more of the tea. "My son has come and gone from here four times. Espio's gone and come back two or three times, and one of the times, his whole section of the universe was destroyed." Is Ace dead? How can Ace ask that if he's there next to Marco breathing, drinking tea, and worrying about a future that might never come. Thatch...
Fuck. What was he to do with the lot of them?
"I told you, in my time, Pops is gone and I've become captain. If you were still in my world for that, I'd make you be captain, and you'd have to fight me forever to refuse that position."
Marco looked out the stars and took another sip of his tea. It would be morning soon, he expected. Sunrise. A new dawn for a discussion of a new era. But that period where it was still so dark out that every little light seemed to be the only one for all of eternity around them. Marco hated that time of day. Was it any wonder? It seemed much too like Blackbeard's hour. Dark. When the moon was set, and the sun had died. And Marco wasn't bright enough to match either of them. If Whitebeard was the moon, laughing and guarding, then Ace had always blazed like the sun, and Marco was a tiny speck of a star. A single sparkle in the endless black, and all he could try to do was to survive and protect the others. Exist for the others. Meh. It was still too early for even diurnal birds to be up and hunting.
"I can't take you back to my time, that is true. But does it matter? Will it change how you live here and now?"