Chapter Text
Ace wakes up draped over Marco’s shoulders and halfway through some kind of story.
“--must be this big, really,” the guy says, standing on tiptoe and waving his hand as high as it will reach. “I swear, my mother-in-law almost didn’t let us come back, even during the day!”
“Why am I listening to this?” Marco asks Haruta.
“Tell him about its skin!” Haruta prompts the guy, and Ace yawns massively.
Marco lets go of Ace’s arm, letting him drop to his feet, but Ace doesn’t push off or away yet. He yawns again, rubbing sleep sand out of his eyes.
“The skin was dark purple, like a wrong sky!” the guy’s saying, and Ace blinks himself into wakefulness because Marco’s tensing against him and that sounds a lot like a youma.
“Did it feel like sickness?” he asks around one last yawn, finally standing on his own. His shoulders pop as he stretches up and out, and he completely misses the sideways look Marco slides his way.
“Yeah!” the guy says, startled. “Yeah, like, like...like when you get a cough stuck in your throat!”
Ace nods, because that’s more or less what a youma feels like; it’s pneumonia down your spine and a fever in the dark, and a gradual creeping of evil just out of sight. Or maybe he’s just really sensitive to the feeling, who the hell knows.
The point is, Marco’s nodding and Haruta’s reassuring the guy that they’ll take care of it. Ace wanders off back to the ship, wondering if he’ll have enough time to finish his nap before they get there.
He doesn’t, it turns out, because the guy’s mother-in-law’s house is on the island just across the bay. It takes them maybe an hour to get back to the ship and across the cove. Of course, they leave with far more people than they started with because Haruta was involved and rumors are her life.
People pile into the small landing boats despite the potential danger. Marco sighs, watching them go, and then turns his back to the scene.
“I can’t believe our crew,” Ace tells him, face sour.
“I can,” Marco sighs. “Everyone is hoping Sailor Moon will show up, yoi. Of course they’ll risk danger for that.”
Ace sighs, then pushes away from the rail. “Well, not me,” he says. “I didn’t finish my nap earlier, so I’m gonna go do that.”
Marco watches him with mild disbelief. “You sure you don’t want to come, yoi? I’ll introduce you, promise.”
“You couldn’t drag me there,” Ace promises. “I hate the Moon Princess and everything she stands for; why would I voluntarily go where she’s gonna be?”
“Oh, right. You hate her, I forgot, yoi,” Marco says, and if his mouth is steady his eyes are laughing.
Ace crosses his arms and sulks away. He still doesn’t get why no one believes him when it comes to this, but he’s willing to chalk it all up to the extreme bad luck that follows him everywhere.
Marco watches their youngest skulk away and lets his smile out. One day, Ace will learn that ignoring his feelings and pulling people’s pigtails is not really the way to handle a crush, but that day is apparently not today.
He sighs, and resolves again to talk to Sailor Moon about it, if he gets a chance. The Moon Princess is not...very communicative and open at the best of times, but Marco will try. For Ace, he’ll try.
When the main rush to get to the island has faded, he turns back towards the beach and lets the fire take his arms. It’s a very short distance, as the phoenix flies, and he passes over most of the landing boats and still gets there first.
He makes sure to land right in front of Thatch and Haruta in a spray of sand. They’ve set up lawn chairs and an umbrella and Thatch has a very fancy-looking drink in one hand and Marco hopes that he got sand all in it. This is a very dangerous battlefield, or it will be soon, and they should respect that.
But they won’t and he knows it, so he sighs and before they can yell at him, he thrusts one hand up and says, “Venus Power Makeup!”
The familiar transformation is almost comforting, stars falling easy around him, and he lets the ending pose happen without fighting it. He’s not sure which came first, really, his full phoenix transformation or the Sailor Venus one, but it hardly matters at this point; they’re both ridiculous.
As Venus, his senses are sharper and he’s suddenly very aware that somewhere in that direction, there is an intense feeling of wrong, like the bitter bite of bile, only it’s on the wind.
“I’ll never get used to that,” Thatch says behind him, and Sailor Venus scowls. It’s not like he asked to be a Sailor Scout.
He absently wishes, for the millionth time, that he was actually Mercury. From what Shanks had told him, between the laughter, Mercury had the power to find and track youma on her own, and it simply isn’t fair.
Still, it is what it is, and at this point Sailor Venus can’t go chase down the youma. His family is crowding the beach, and he’s not about to leave them unprotected when he’s not sure where the threats are, or even how many.
“Hey, Venus,” Haruta says behind him, and he turns just enough to get the two troublemakers in sight. “Hey, I have a question.”
The feeling of awful is getting stronger, but it’s not yet enough to turn his stomach, so he glances at her. There’s a handy natural chokepoint in the cliffs surrounding the beach, which should do nicely--
“What flavor is your lip gloss?”
His thoughts screech to a halt and his head whips around to stare at her better. “What?”
“Your lip gloss,” Haruta says, gesturing. “What flavor is it? Is it flavored at all? I mean, it’s magic, right?”
Venus blinks, then licks his lips. The taste that lingers on his tongue is the same as always, but it’s no business of Haruta’s at all. “P--peach,” he says eventually, and turns back to watch the only approach to the beach. “It’s peach flavored.”
There’s a short scuffle and whisper-fight behind him, but he’s not turning around until he knows his face is calm again. “Peach, huh?” Haruta says over Thatch’s sniggers. “I wonder if Sailor Moon’s is peach, too. Does moon magic taste like peaches?”
“I’m going to go wait up there for the youma, yoi,” Venus says determinedly, and doesn’t look back.
He is, in fact, focusing so hard on not paying attention to anybody that Sailor Moon hitting the ground next to him takes him completely by surprise
Sailor Moon greets him with a scowl once he’s done pretending not to be surprised. “Heard there was a youma around here,” Sailor Moon says, tugging absently at the hem of her skirt, and Venus is suddenly twenty percent surer that the person behind the magic is actually a boy.
He nods, not trusting his voice right now, and his stomach turns upside down.
Sailor Moon is still scowling at him. “So why do we have an audience?” she asks, gesturing to the impromptu party on the beach.
Venus sighs. “Because my family is insane,” he says. “Normally stuff like this is too dangerous, or too sudden.”
“Ah,” Sailor Moon says. “But this is relatively safe, so it’s a show, huh?”
“You may not believe it,” Venus says, “but this is actually them being supportive.” At Sailor Moon’s scoff, he shrugs. “They believe in me and want to watch me kick youma butt, yoi. They’re sure I’ll win and they trust that I won’t let them be hurt. They know I’m a Sailor Scout, and they wanna know about that part of me, too.”
Sailor Moon looks like someone slapped her. “Supportive…?” she repeats, eyes going distant. “They’re okay with you being a Sailor Scout?”
Venus shrugs, and swallows back nausea. “We’re family, yoi,” he says, and even though they’re almost out of time, he still has something to say. “But, Sailor Moon,” he says, catching her attention. “One of my siblings--the one in green, see her? Don’t--don’t let her catch you alone, okay?”
Sailor Moon squints back at the beach, one hand drawing her necklace into her wand. “Haruta?” he asks. “Why?”
Venus draws out his now-glowing chain, and starts swinging it in a slow circle. “She was--oh, no reason, yoi.”
Sailor Moon gives him a very suspicious sideways look, but they’re out of time and they both know it. The youma’s all but on top of them.
But there’s no youma to be seen. The creeping feeling of wrong assures Venus that there’s one here, but he’s not seeing it. There’s only one way down onto the beach below, and it’s this pass.
Sailor Moon steps back next to him, turning to put her back to his. They circle slowly, watching the shadows at the end of the pass, and it’s easy as anything to work with her.
Then she’s tensing, and her hand tugs the back of his sailor bib as she takes off back down towards the beach. “He’s above us,” she shouts, and he’s already keeping pace.
He never even considered that the youma could come from above , from the cliff itself. There’s a squeezing in his throat and his heart is going triple-time, and he sprints with everything he has. He’s got to make it before the youma comes down onto the unguarded beach where his family is. He’s got to.
Ahead of him, Sailor Moon--how is she so fast --takes a flying leap over the rocks and takes the fall. He can’t quite see where she lands, and he pushes a bit harder, coming up over the rocks himself only seconds behind her.
She’s tackled the youma, and James and Edgar from the Sixth Division are scattering back from the impact crater.
Venus spends one second he can’t afford to exhale and thank everything, and then his chain is flying. Sailor Moon’s at the thing’s waist so he aims for its inhumanly long throat, even as Sailor Moon executes a very neat kickover, putting her upright and away. Venus tightens the chain and loops it lower around the torso.
But now his weapon’s tied up and he can’t channel a Crescent Beam while his chain’s active. He’s about to find out if he can rip a head off with his chain when Sailor Moon huffs behind him and taps his shoulder with her own.
He takes the three steps to clear her way, and she does the same move he watched last time, rotating and scattering moon dust everywhere as she calls for “Moon Healing Escalation!”
He calls his chain back, catching the trailing end just as the youma victim hits the floor. But the oil slick of darkness is still high in his throat, and he spins in just enough time to tangle the second youma and slam it to the ground, preventing it from ambushing Sailor Moon’s open back.
He growls and slams it down into the ground again, and Sailor Moon spins, skirt flaring and hair flying. “Thanks,” she says distractedly and heals this one, too.
And that’s all of them, he thinks; the horrible taste lingering in his mouth is only stale fear. He watches Sailor Moon shake out her wrist with a dull grimace on her face. The crowd on the shore is cheering and laughing, and she turns to him and says, “Thanks for having my back.”
He has to gulp for air, suddenly, and stumbles. He’d’ve hit his knees, but she catches him just in time, wedging a shoulder under his. “Thank you,” he breathes, because the concept of her thanking him for anything is laughable. “You saved--you got there so fast.”
“Hey,” her voice says above him, but his vision is all swimmy and his ears are ringing with his family’s distant voices. “Hey, you’re okay. They’re okay. You couldn’t’ve known.”
“I put my family in danger,” he whispers, and the truth burns like guilt on his tongue. “And you saved them, yoi.”
“No one was hurt,” Sailor Moon says, and starts dragging him down the beach.
He lets the transformation fade, and his chain bites into his knuckles where it’s still wrapped tight over his hand. “I could’ve gotten my family hurt,” he says, and stumbles when she throws him forward.
Someone catches him, and the overpowering scent of mint hair gel tells him it’s Thatch.
“I think he’s broken,” Sailor Moon tells them, and he laughs. It’s small and rasping and awful, even to him, and he lets Thatch support him.
“I let them come, yoi,” he says, and Thatch inhales above him. “I thought I could protect them all.”
“You didn’t know they’d come from above,” Haruta says, crowding into his other side. “Everyone’s okay. Even James and Edgar, and you’d best believe Blamenco is chewing them out. It’s not your fault.”
“Yeah,” Sailor Moon adds. “What kind of idiots change towards nightmare demons, anyway?”
There’s this really awkward moment as everyone stares at Sailor Moon, and then Marco stands up on his own, clear his throat, and says, “Well. We do.”
Sailor Moon gives him this look, eyebrows down, lips pursed, and chin tilted just a bit, and Marco is suddenly and painfully reminded of Ace.
He shakes out his shoulders, inhales, and then he bows and says, “Thank you, Sailor Moon. You saved my family, and for that I owe you my life, yoi.”
Sailor Moon recoils and stares at him. “You saved my life right back,” she accuses. “We’re even, we’re so even, please stand up, seriously, I can’t deal with this.”
Marco does stand up, but only when he’s sure his twitching lips won’t give him away. Whoever Sailor Moon is, she or he is young, painfully so sometimes.
Luckily, Haruta chooses exactly that moment to slide in between them and sparkle at Sailor Moon. “Hi,” she says. “ Thanks for saving us again, I love you, you’re perfect.”
Sailor Moon freezes. “Um.” she says, and stares.
Thatch reaches out and grabs the back of her tunic, pulling her back. “Whoa there,” he says. “Ace has dibs, remember?”
She starts to protest and Sailor Moon unfreezes. “No, Ace doesn’t,” she snaps. “No one has dibs, I am a person and you can’t call dibs on me.”
Haruta sighs dreamily and melts a little.
Marco thwacks her on the head and pulls her back a few steps. “I mean it, though,” he says, trying to get the conversation back on track. “You ever need anything, you let Sailor Venus or Marco the Phoenix know, yoi.”
Sailor Moon blinks at him, then says, “Sure, fine, whatever. I’m out.” She turns to go, but Thatch makes an aborted gesture to catch her wrist.
“Wait!” he says, raising both hands instead. “Hey, sorry, just hang on a sec. Why don’t you stay a bit? There’s gonna be a party.” He makes a completely unnecessary gesture towards the shore, where everyone is already halfway to drunk.
“I see that,” Sailor Moon deadpans, “But I’ve got somewhere to be, so, no thanks.”
“But just for a while?” Thatch nearly begs. “Not everyone’s here yet, and I wanted you to meet--”
“No!” Sailor Moon says, rounding on Thatch. “I don’t want to meet anyone--”
Thatch carries on regardless, and this, Marco thinks, is going to have to stop. It’s becoming just a touch pathetic, and he’s unreasonably glad Ace isn’t here to see this. “But you’d like Ace, he’s nice!”
Sailor Moon tugs at her bangs, growls, and says, “I would not like Ace, and he isn’t nice, and I wouldn’t date him anyway!”
“Why not?” Thatch asks, and it’s his turn to be bopped on the head and dragged away. Marco’s about to apologize on his behalf when Sailor Moon throws up her arms and says “Because I’m--I’m already dating Haruta!”
There’s a moment of quiet in their group, and even Sailor Moon’s face goes a bit pale. Stupidly, the only thing Marco can think to say is, “No, you’re not.”
“Am too!” she says, then lunges forward, wrapping one hand around Haruta’s neck and pulling her into a kiss that is remarkably filthy for how short it is.
“See!” she then says, pushing back and away from a still frozen Haruta. “So stop trying to set me up with people!”
And she stomps off, and this time, no one stops her.
Marco watches her go with wide eyes, and Haruta just swoons into a puddle right there on the sand.
Thatch turns to her with a wounded look. “Have you really been dating Sailor Moon all this time?” he demands.
“Strawberry,” Haruta sighs dreamily. Marco twitches and pretends he didn’t hear that.
“How could you not tell me?!”
“She’s perfect.”
And Marco really can’t help but say, “I’m really pretty sure she’s actually a guy behind the magic, yoi.”
“You’ve been leading Ace on!” Thatch screeches in the background, and Haruta flips up to stab a finger at Marco.
“I’m with Ace on this,” she says. “Girl, guy, creature, I do not give a good goddamn. She. Is. Perfect.”
Marco throws up his hands. Thatch is on his knees and wailing, Haruta is flopping back over to stare up at the sky and sigh, and Marco is so done.
He stalks a few feet away to where Curiel has set the giant pile of sake bottles. Everyone cheers his arrival and yells congratulations to him as he passes, and he decides tonight it a perfect night to try getting drunk again.
At some point, people end up back on the ship as well as scattered along the coast. Ace trots out onto the deck and finds Marco just picking up a new bottle of something unmarked that Ace can smell clear across the deck.
He chuckles and slides over to join him. “You okay?” he asks, and steals the bottle for a swig of his own.
He chokes on it but manages to swallow, coughing and hacking after. Marco smiles at him and takes the bottle back while Ace wheezes. “Are you drinking paint thinner?” he asks eventually.
Marco raises the bottle, looks it over, and shrugs. “Fossa gave it to me, yoi,” he says. “I’m not sure what it is.” Then he raises it and takes a long pull.
Ace stares at him with solid respect. Marco is obviously a man’s man, even if he sometimes fights in a miniskirt.
Marco shifts beside him, then sighs and settles. He fidgets with his chain for a second, then slides Ace a sideways glance. Ace waits patiently, and Marco eventually asks, “Hey, do you...did you ever really like Sailor Moon?”
Ace sighs. He’d kinda thought this might happen. “I...respect Sailor Moon,” he says, and that’s even true, as far as it goes. “She’s a hero, and she’s out blatantly fighting nightmare demons, and I respect her for that. Do I like her? I never really met her, so I couldn’t say.” That’s a lie, right there, but that’s fine. None of this matters, because, “That’s not what you’re asking, though, is it?”
Marco sits down beside him, and lets his legs dangle off the side of the ship. Ace slides down to join him, and steals the bottle back. “I never had a crush on her,” he says, plain and firm. “I don’t want to date her, and I’m not about to be heartbroken over anything she might have said or done.”
There, that’s as clear as he can be, and he takes a smaller, more cautious sip. It’s just as bad the second time, but at least he was more prepared for it. He only coughs up about half a lung, and hands the bottle back.
“Oh,” Marco says, “Good.” he swallows half the bottle easily, and Ace feels vaguely ill just watching. They sit in silence for a moment, and Marco finally says, “I think Haruta’s in love with her, yoi.”
Ace blinks. “What.”
Marco nods. “When I left her on the beach, she was still sighing and telling everyone how perfect Sailor Moon is and how moon magic tastes like strawberries.”
Ace absently runs his tongue over his bottom lip, chasing a lingering flavor. Then he sighs, tugs at his bangs, and says, “Do you think they’ll lay off on me, then?”
Marco shrugs, and takes another long pull. “Dunno,” he says, and stares out at the ocean some more.
Ace kicks his legs and doesn’t try for the bottle again. Instead, he asks, “Do you...do you like being Sailor Venus?”
Marco blinks, and Ace waits patiently. Finally, Marco says, “Generally, I answer that question by reminding people I didn’t really get a say in the matter.”
Ace sighs and nods. He knows that very well.
But Marco isn’t done yet. “I didn’t get a say, yoi. I was born to be Sailor Venus, and for the longest time, I hated it. Refused to transform.” He catches sight of Ace’s face and laughs. “I did, it’s true, yoi! But then a magical guide showed up to explain everything to me, and it started making sense, you know?
“I’m not Venus because I did something wrong or anything; it’s not a punishment. And I’m not Venus because of my family or my history or anything, yoi. I’m Venus because there’s something out there that I can fix, because I’m Venus. Because I had the heart for it.”
He winces over that, and drinks another fifth of the bottle in one go. “Today I made a mistake and put my family in danger,” he says, and holds up his hand to stop Ace’s protest. “And Sailor Moon fixed it, yoi. She sensed the danger in time and saved them, and I owe her my life, or at least my sanity, for that. I’m Venus, and I’m still hurting people, but Sailor Moon? Now there’s a hero, yoi.
“But still,” he goes on as Ace turns his face away. “One day, maybe I’ll be in that situation. Maybe I’ll be there just in time, and I’ll be the one to save someone’s life, or their family, or their sanity. Maybe I’ll save even one person’s heart, because I’m Venus, and that’s what Venus is for, yoi.
“So, you know what?” He leans over a bit, like it’s some massive secret, and says at his normal volume, “I’m Sailor Venus, and I don’t get a say in it, and it doesn’t matter if I like it or not, yoi. But I’m starting to think...maybe I do.”
Ace flops down at the table and groans, “I’m huuuuungry.”
Haruta perches across from him and grins far too bright for this time of morning. “Hi, Hungry!” she chirps, “I’m Sailor Moon’s girlfriend!”
Ace freezes, incredibly grateful his face is still on the table.
“Mmhmm,” Haruta tells him, probably getting vast enjoyment out of his suffering. “She said so. And then she kissed me.” Ace wishes, for the hundred millionth time, that his blush would stay on his cheeks like a normal human instead of crawling down his throat and across his shoulders.Then Haruta leans in but doesn’t bother to drop her voice as she tells him, “Sailor Moon is a fantastic kisser. Like, wow .”
Ace whines pathetically and thinks about crawling under the table. Someone thumps down beside them, and Ace holds his breath and hopes really hard that it’s someone who will save him from this conversation.
Then Jozu’s voice says, “Really?” and Ace actually goes ahead and slides down as far as he can manage without actually falling. “Hey, is her hair as soft as it looks?”
Haruta sighs happily and starts to describe the whole thing again, despite the fact Jozu had actually been there. Also, maybe Ace is biased, but he doesn’t remember magical roses and sparkles and angels singing, like Haruta’s describing. He’s pretty sure it was more sand and adrenaline and convenience, but to listen to Haruta tell it, Sailor Moon is a fairy tale prince.
Thatch finally comes over, carrying an astounding number of plates, and frowns at them all. Ace looks up in hopes that his friend and brother will save him.
Thatch sets a stack of plates in front of him, then turns to Haruta and hisses, “Shut up, you can’t talk about that here!”
Haruta glares at him. “Why not?”
Thatch gestures wildly at Ace, who’s pointedly ignoring them all but still a bit red. “You’re gloating over stealing your brother’s crush!” he hisses in a whisper that carries remarkably well, and Haruta’s entire face crumples and she gasps.
“I’m so sorry, Ace!” she wails. “I wasn’t thinking--I didn’t mean--”
Ace ignores her to start eating, because he figures sooner or later they’re gonna ruin his appetite. Sure enough, Thatch is still talking. “You can’t brag about banging a Sailor Scout in front of--” and nope, no, that’s it, he is out.
“Right,” he says, and stands. “This is horrible and disrespectful, and I am leaving.”
Haruta cries out something behind him, and Thatch’s voice is rising pretty steadily, and he’s still hungry.
Still, there’s a small smile hiding on his lips behind the phantom taste of strawberries. Everything is awful, and Shanks will probably be dropping by soon to laugh at the mess his life has become, but he thinks that he might maybe agree with Marco, after all.
For the first time in his life, he’s finding himself thinking that maybe being Sailor Moon isn’t the worst thing ever.