Epals

Chapter 9

Marco POV

Marco,

Thanks to your previous letter, my friends found endless amusement in the reddening of my cheeks. Insert mental pouting here please. Aside from that yes, I am doing just fine. I hope you are as well? Do you like seafood? My friend Sanji is a sous chef and his seafood is to die for. Seriously. You have to try it sometime. Crap, I must go now, work is calling.

Talk to you whenever I get a chance to,

Ace

I couldn't help but chuckle at the letter, trying to stifle the laughter so I don't disturb my father. Right now, I am visiting him in the nearby town where he lives. He is currently on the phone, talking to a coworker about some sort of issue. It doesn't take long for him to end the call and walk over to where I am on the computer typing up a reply.

"What's gotten you to laugh so openly? It's been ages since I last seen you laugh like that." His words were a mix of confusion and amusement which I nearly rolled my eyes at.

"It hasn't been that long since I last laughed." I glanced up at him, hitting the send button.

"Okay, let me rephrase that then. Since the last time you laughed for real." I paused for a moment, taken off guard. Sighing, I turned in my seat to face him.

"Perona recently forced me to join a site called Epals. It's where you are randomly partnered up with a stranger and you exchange emails anonymously. Well I got a partner pretty quickly; his name is Ace. I was laughing at a letter he sent." I could feel the smile across my lips though I attempted to ignore it. For some reason whenever I think or talk about him I end up smiling and my heart does these weird palpitations.

"Oh? Well hopefully you aren't talking to a creeper. Stranger danger and all that." He grinned, and this time I did roll my eyes at him.

"Really dad, I am not 10 years old anymore." This made him laugh, his large white beard bouncing at the motion.

"Tell me more about this Ace character." Edward sat down on the couch opposite my own chair, bending forwards to place his elbows onto his knees.

"For starters, He's not too far off from my own age. He has a bunch of friends and apparently loves the seafood Sanji makes. He has narcolepsy and so does his little brother Luffy. Oh! And Luffy recently got engaged to their friend Nami, Ace is both really excited and dreading the idea of Luffy as a married man. From what he has told me so far, I can't say I blame him." I let out a small laugh, my grin nearly splitting my face in half, "Ace works as a firefighter so his hours are pretty crazy sometimes, and I can't help but worry he is going to get himself hurt one of these days. He loves what he does though, which is a good thing." I paused, not sure what else to mention, deciding that I should probably also take a breath. Ed's grin mirrored my own and soon he was laughing like a mad man.

"What? What's so funny" I'm pretty sure I didn't say something that funny.

"Marco, son, have you even thought to pause for a moment? It's pretty obvious you are developing some strong feelings for Ace."

"Wait, no, he is my friend." I frowned a little bit, thinking. Maybe he has a point though? The heart palpitations, thinking about him all day, grinning when I talk to him or about him. Butterflies at the idea of even meeting him one day. My eyes widened slightly, realization slowly dawning, "crap."