Dark flame

Light Of Life (Soulmate AU)

Everyone has a device, a small box with a tiny lightbulb inside to show the wellbeing of your soulmate. Dim means they're hurt or sick, while a bright light shows that they're healthy.

Ace didn't mind seeing either, since both told him his soulmate was alive and kicking. The only thing he never thought to see, was the absence of that beautiful small light.

(A/N: EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT, I SWEAR!)

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Soulmate-AU
Temporary Character Death
Hurt/Comfort

Seeing he was done with his mission he was simply resting in bed in the inn he was renting in, planning to take a nap before starting the track home. No matter how much he just wanted to leave right now, it wouldn't do to just leave very excited, only to fall of striker from a sleep attack, so small nap before it was.

After a minute, he took a small box from his pocket and held it close to his heart before opening it and smiling. It was a very small rectangular box in the exact shade of Marco's flames, inside was his light. Marco's little light of life as Ace called it.

He watched it as it illuminated the darker room in a blue-ish hue, indicating that Marco was very alive and kicking, he smiled brightly at it as he hugged it close, turning onto his side and placing it down next to him, but never closing it as he watched it.

Whenever he was separated from Marco, he would watch this light whenever he had free time. The other, or himself, could be on a mission, or could simply have had a day of a lot of commander's work and having been holed up inside not wanting to be bothered. No matter if the man was actually close by or not, seeing the little light shine brightly always cheered him up and calmed his mind when he couldn't actually be with the man himself.

Even before he had met The Phoenix, when he was still small and sleeping with Sabo and Luffy in their tree house, he would –in secret of course– take the little box and look at the light when he felt down or whenever he just had the urge to do so. Especially if he had just been in a fight with people that said he should have never been born, he would sneak out or hide in a corner so the others wouldn't see, and would take the little box and open it, watching the light burn brightly. It was his soulmate. The only person in the world that won't... shouldn't... care who he was, a person that would love him for who he was, no matter his demon's blood. Even if he didn't yet know who it was, knowing this person was alive somewhere was enough to brighten him up and momentarily forget that besides the person behind the light, everyone wanted him dead.

So here he was, simply watching the bright light with a fond smile, caressing it with a single finger every now and then. When he was almost asleep the light started flickering, and while it did shake him out of his peaceful sleep, he wasn't too worried. The ship was probably attacked by some rookie crew or Marines upholding justice who were brave enough to try and face them.

He snorted as he saw it flicker a few times in a row, the light getting a bit dimmer before picking up to its usual brightness. Marco was probably having fun scaring the shit out of whoever attacked him. Letting himself get shot or stabbed, once he deemed the weapons weren't sea stone, and then smirking at the look of horror then the other noticed Marco didn't even flinch and healed seconds later. Their small moment of victory ruined before it even began.

When he didn't know the man, he had thought his light was broken at moments. No one healed from a sickness or wound this quick, but it never stopped worrying him if he had looked at it and seen it flicker. The Phoenix had profusely apologized to Ace and pulled him into a hug when he had told the man he had worried a lot as a kid.... as a teen... when the light would flicker. Not knowing if his soulmate was actually okay, even if the light was bright, or if his device was simply broken. Marco had spent the whole day pampering Ace, telling him he didn't know the light would dim for the brief moment that he got a wound and made sure to reassure that he was very much alive, and in love, with Ace.