Dark flame

Red footprints

This new story is once again a compilation of different shorter stories, but this time with a darker theme!

Main focus will be the Whitebeard Pirates' most handsome duo: Marco and Ace! (Not like these two aren't already the main focus in my other stories hahha)

There could be happy endings and that the general theme is still darker so it deserve to be in here. But be prepared for also no happy endings.
I will be sure to give major warnings in the begining, but do expect "angst" and "hurt" to be a general theme throughout this whole compilation thing.

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Whatever you're about to read, this all started with the prompt "Fight" from week 4 of the February One Piece event oplovelikeyou is holding (you can find them on twitter), it is a lovely event for the Valentines-month, and while I started writing this for that... I can't submit this anymore... I took a wrong turn once I started Marco's scene...

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WARNINGS
Major character death (while not specefically said that he's dead, it's kind of implied)
Blood and injury
Angst and tragedy
Kind of open ending - not happy / bad ending
Alternate Universe - Modern Setting

Ace

He knew something was wrong with him, he had been passing it off as being tired, but he can't anymore. It's been over a month since he's moved in with Marco after years of dating, and he's still passing out.

Yes, I, Portgas D. Ace, since about 3,5 weeks ago, have been passing out at random times throughout the day. It started with me suddenly waking up on the coach or a chair, not knowing I had even fallen asleep. It then went on into suddenly feeling extremely lethargic and having to sit down before once again, a while later, waking up not knowing I had passed out.
I had told Marco about it, but just like me, he thought it was maybe the strain of moving so much furniture and stuff from their separate apartments to their new house, plus also sleeping in a new bed and unknown environment, it could all lead to more sleepless night and thus being more tired.

However, a month later and it is only getting worse. The fainting, and yes at some point I started not calling it 'falling asleep' anymore, started happening more and more. And it started happening while I was in the middle of tasks too, active tasks even. Last week I fell asleep while working and it was a close call, he still flinches when thinking back of it! He had been inspecting his teams work, more specifically the caulking around some windows at the outside of a building. Deeming it to be good he had made his way back to an open window entrance and was stepping back inside the building when he suddenly felt the pull of exhaustion.
He was sure he had gone deadly pale in an instant and looked like he had seen death, because before he could do something he was already falling. He was lucky he followed all safety regulations and was thus connected to a spring-loaded harness that pulled him towards the building, making him drop dead on the floor instead of down the open air. Oh and did he say where he was working exactly? Not a normal house no, nope, he was on the 12th floor of a skyscraper! If it had happened even a second earlier, he wouldn't have been pulled inside and would have been dangling about 30 meters above the ground outside the building! His only hope would have been that his harness would hold him up long enough for help to come. I should have gone to the doctors at this point, but I was still in denial and thinking the tiredness would go away with some more rest.

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I didn't think it was possible, but the attacks got worse... it is my day off today and I was running on the treadmill after getting up and... I felt the usual tiredness washing over me, I wanted to get off the machine to sit down, but I couldn't. I couldn't! I was paralysed, I couldn't move myself, not my arms, not my legs, nothing! I was helpless in my whole body, in my own house, while the belt of the treadmill kept moving but I wasn't. Reaching the end, I witnessed myself falling off the machine, see the floor coming closer. My head smacked against it and it hurt, it hurt so bad, but I still couldn't move. I could feel liquid, probably blood, run out of my nose, BUT I STILL COULDN'T MOVE!
I laid there by myself, blood pooling and drenching half my face, unable to do anything. It was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours before I finally started getting some feelings in my limbs again and I was able to get up into a sitting position.
It was terrifying, I was shaking all over and my head hurt. It took me another few minutes to get my breathing and heartrate under control before I could take care of my nose, clean up, and take some painkillers. By some luck my nose wasn't broken but it would definitely bruise later on.