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Thatch’s booming laughter filled the mess hall.
“Who do you think you’re fooling, Firecracker? A date? Your husband is literally in the bedroom next door to yours. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you two going from one room to the other in the middle of the night.” He snorted again, his voice lowering as he stage whispered to Izou sitting next to him: “Kids really think they’re subtle.”
“As if you were any better when you were his age.” Izou answered, hiding his smile behind his fan.
Ace rolled his eyes at their old men antics. Here they were, teasing him about his lack of love life and when he said he was looking for a date (only to make them shut up, really), they came up with that bullshit. “What husband? I don’t have a husband.”
Izou and Thatch gave him a look like he was being purposefully difficult.
“Seriously guys! Are you talking about Deuce? Deuce is not my husband.”
“Come on, dumbass! It’s not that weird to be married to your soulmate. I swear no one will give a shit.”
“We’re not soulmates.” Ace said slowly. What was wrong with those two? Where did they get those ridiculous ideas?
Izou took a breath and put a supportive hand on Ace’s shoulder. “Ace, who’s your soulmate?”
Ace shrugged. “Never met them. And it can’t be Deuce, he saw my mark and he didn’t say anything so it can’t be him.”
“Well, I’ve seen both of yours and I can tell you, you two are soulmates.” Thatch insisted.
Ace glared, feeling his fire rise in temperature in his belly. “How the fuck did you see his neck?” He growled. “He never takes off his high collar and even when he does, his hair hides it.”
Thatch, at least, looked a little guilty as he admitted. “I might have peeked when he was in the shower.”
Izou stood up to stop Ace from jumping over the counter to attack Thatch.
“I swear it was an accident!” Thatch screeched, jumping a few feet back and lifting his hands in surrender.
Ace was feeling like he was breathing fire. How dare this pervert disrespect Deuce like that? “Accident my ass, you…”
“Ace, Ace, calm down!” Izou pushed Ace back into his seat. Ace kept glaring at Thatch, crossing his arms. “I’m sure he has an excellent explanation.” Izou said, ice cold as he, too, glared at his soulmate over his shoulder. Ace smirked, he hoped Izou punished Thatch harshly for this.
“I didn’t see him inside, so I entered the shower and bumped into him.” Thatch explained. “I didn’t even look lower than his face, I swear.”
“You saw his face!?” Ace squawked. Not even he got to see Deuce’s face! No fair!
Thatch rolled his eyes this time, not as intimidated now. “Chill FireBoy, I only saw the back of his head and a bit of his neck. As soon as I noticed I wasn’t alone, I hightailed it out of there.”
Izou made a humming noise, still glaring, which made Thatch’s composure break.
“I swear I didn’t do anything! Ask him if you don’t believe me!”
Right, why was Ace wasting time with this idiot anyway? He had to go find Deuce, make sure he was okay.
Deuce was in his room, reading over the table of content of a book he’d borrowed from Marco, when Ace barged into his room.
“Deuce, are you okay? Did Thatch hurt you?”
Deuce frowned. “What are you talking about? Of course I’m okay. And… I haven’t seen Thatch all day.”
Ace’s face morphed into a pout, which only confused Deuce further. Was something going on? Ace kicked the door closed and dropped right on top of Deuce, cuddling against his side and pouting some more.
“He said he saw you in the shower. I wanted to make sure he didn’t do anything to you.”
This was what this was about? “It happened weeks ago Ace, we just bumped into each other and he apologized and left. Nothing happened.”
Ace just nuzzled further into Deuce’s side, whispering so low Deuce had to strain to hear him. “He said he saw your face. And your soulmark.”
Deuce froze and subconsciously grabbed the back of his neck, caressing the constellation of freckles linked with small lines he knew was there. ‘It forms a little flame in front of a crescent moon,’ his mom had told him once, way back before she decided she didn’t want a writer for son.
Years later, while stuck on that stupid Island where they met, he’d seen the mark on the back of Ace’s neck. The mark there matched the description but Deuce… Something stopped him from telling Ace. Maybe the fact that he was a total stranger, maybe the fact that Ace had hidden food for himself while Deuce starved. And so he’d kept his collars high and his hair long, had acted like nothing was out of the ordinary.
Nothing had stopped him from falling hard, though.
Before he knew it, he was a Pirate, the Spades Pirates’ vice-captain and was facing WhiteBeard’s crew to try and rescue Ace from the Yonko’s earthquakes and his own stupidity. And he… had lost. Failed to protect the most important person in his life.
And so, when WhiteBeard offered the Spades to not only live but also join his crew, Deuce had been lost, torn between the need to protect Ace, a need made even more desperate by his recent failure to do so, and knowing that Ace’s pride would make him refuse if he’d been awake to make the decision himself.
Deuce had betrayed Ace a second time in a row by accepting the offer in his name.
After that, the shame had kept him away. For weeks, he’d avoided Ace, hiding away in the infirmary, his face deep in the books Marco had kindly lent him and ignoring the gaping hole in his chest. How could he be Ace’s soulmate? This didn’t make sense. He could neither protect him nor respect his choices.
Until the day Ace had ran into the infirmary, crying and jumping into Deuce’s arms the instant he saw him. Turns out, Ace didn’t think Deuce had betrayed him, he had just been worried for him because he didn’t know if Deuce was alive or not.
After that, Deuce had kind of let go of his self doubts. Ace cared about him and thought he was a good vice-captain, trusted him with his life and their crew’s. And so, he’d started being more carefree around Ace, doing the things he wanted to do. Like telling everyone how much he cared about him, how he would give his life for him and how he would always jump after him to get him when he fell in the ocean. Or visiting him in the middle of the night just to cuddle, at first because he had a nightmare then… Just because he felt like it.
Somehow, Ace had started reciprocating. And the others of the crew had started giving them those looks, like they knew what was going on.
And Deuce… Deuce kept not telling Ace about the soulmark.
It wasn’t intentional! He’d just… Not thought about it.
“I’m just… mad that he violated your privacy, it’s all.” Ace explained, sitting up. “And maybe I’m a little bit jealous that he got to see parts of you I never did. But I don’t want your boundaries violated ever, so…”
Deuce took in a breath… “He did not hurt me Ace, it was an accident.” He bit his lip. “Did you… want to see my mark?”
“Not if you don’t want me to…” Ace said, turning away to try and hide the yearning in his eyes. Deuce could see it clear as day anyway.
“I’ve been meaning to show you for a while now. Just… with everything that happened, I guess I forgot…”
Ace looked back at Deuce, his eyes lighting up hopefully. “Are you sure?”
Deuce nodded and turned around, taking off his coat and lifting his hair out of the way.
Ace leaned in to get a better look.
On the back of Deuce’s neck was a myriad of freckles, some linked to each other by thin lines, forming a pattern: a moon surrounded by stars, in front of which seemed to burn a flame. Ace could almost see the flame dance and crackle, the moon illuminated by its light...
He was a little disappointed when he didn’t instantly recognize the symbol. Then he reminded himself that he’d technically never seen his own mark and so the lack of familiarity didn’t necessarily mean that Deuce wasn’t his soulmate.
Ace did a double take. Since when did he want Deuce to be his soulmate? Since when had he started wishing, hoping…? He didn’t know.
Maybe since they first met, maybe since he decided Deuce would be his vice-captain, maybe since Deuce took care of their crewmates and saved all of their lives by making them join the WhiteBeard Pirates after Ace had been beaten that first time…
The point was he’d been hoping… And he’d thought seeing Deuce’s soulmark would give him an answer. But it didn’t.
Ace had no idea if the mark on his own neck matched Deuce’s. He had stubbornly refused to let anyone tell him what it looked like, refusing to let fate rule over his love life the same way he refused to let his biological father’ name impact his life at all.
Now he regretted that willful ignorance.
“Is everything okay? You’re being… quiet…” Deuce asked, nervous energy coursing up and down his back.
“It’s just… I have no idea what this means… I don’t know what mine looks like…”
“Do you… Want our marks to be the same?” Deuce asked looking over his shoulder. ‘Do you want us to be soulmates?’ He meant.
“I do.” He said, making Deuce gasp softly. “I didn’t know I did but I do.”
Deuce looked nervously over his shoulder, trying to figure out if he was lying.
After a little bit, he took a breath and looked away, whispering: “They are, actually. I’ve seen yours, it’s the same.”
Ace made a little noise Deuce didn’t quite identify until he was engulfed in a warm, all encompassing hug. The noise kept going in his ear and Deuce finally realized it was an excited squeal.
“I need to thank Thatch! If this big lug hadn’t told me about this, I never would have found out!”
Deuce snorted. “You want to thank him for walking in on me in the shower and then babbling about it?”
Ace soured. “On second thought, no. I hope Izou kicks him out of their room tonight.”
Deuce laughed, relief and happiness filling him pleasantly.
Ace was his soulmate.
Not only that but Ace was happy to be Deuce’s soulmate.
Deuce relaxed back into the hug, determined to soak up all of this wonderful feeling.