#marco being so nice and genuine and disregarding of propriety is what had Ace crushing hard!!!

[xamaxenta]

Princes Ace and Luffy but they both hate everything about it, except Ace cleans up extremely well when he wants to

🙏🏽 arranged marriage between the Gol kingdom and the Newgate kingdom and the intial impressions were,,, dodgy considering Ace was dressed as a servant boy, covered in mud (roughhousing with Luffy, also dressed as a servants boy), dragging a giant river fish between himself and Luffy with his faithful hunting wolfdog Striker trotting behind with a full coat of mud masking her tricolour fur

Queen Rouge gives them both a look because waiting for her sons to come back whilst entertaining their to be allies herself was not polite at all, her husband Roger was out on a hunting trip looking to bring home big game to fill their celebration banquet with

the two princes track dirt and water and blood all across the palace to the hearing chambers where their esteemed guests await and Ace straight up declines the moment he sees the man waiting for him, he doesn’t wanna get married, especially not to the big old guy with the croissant moustache!!!

King Newgate realising Ace thought it was he who he would be betrothed to almost shatters the walls with his earthshaking laughter because absolutely NOT, asks the squire beside him where Marco has run off to

And the Squire (Haruta) informs their liege that Marco had become quite attached to the tapestry work around the halls and would be joining shortly… maybe…

Prince Marco’s tardiness already eases Ace’s opinions of him, if their guest was later than him then his mom won’t be too mad at him… if the look on her usually sweet face is anything to go by maybe he will survive the scolding later

then Marco arrives, windswept, handsome, equally dressed down in plain riding gear and before Ace can call Striker to heel, his muddy hound has launched herself at the newcomer, whippish tail wagging a mile a minute and Rouge watches in appalled horror as Marco is promptly taken down by large dirty canine

What a disaster, hikes up her skirts and storms across the hall to hiss at Luffy to stop laughing please, she needs to know how he escaped from the watchful eye of Dadan immediately! But she supposes her first son had a hand in his escape

Ace rescuing Marco from his overexcited dog, grabbing her by the collar and dragging her off bodily from the poor man beneath her and he just… freezes because Marco beams up at him from the tiled floor, his face may be shiny with dog spittle and his hair may have been licked into wet curls but he doesn’t seem too upset by the surprise attack

“I’m so sorry—!” Ace stammers out, more for his mother’s ears than his own willingness to apologise. Striker whines and squirms against her master’s hold when Marco props himself up onto his elbows, clearly reading his movement as more cues to play.

“Don’t be, she’s lovely.” Marco reaches out to scritch the pup behind her brown mud caked ear.

“Oh. Um. Thanks?” Ace glances over his shoulder to see his mother jut her chin at him threateningly, Luffy hides around her skirts, slouching from the weight of the fish in his arms.

“What’s her breed? I’ve never seen proportions like this.”

“She’s a wolfdog.” Ace mumbles, his chest constricting in guilt and confusion, unsure of why this would matter. Why Marco hadn’t yelled at him yet, why he wasn’t upset

“Fascinating, a wolfdog,” Marco murmurs scrubbing his knuckles beneath the wolfdog’s chin, drawing a low rumbly croon from her throat and thus his attention to the nametag dangling from her collar, “—Hello Striker, I’m Marco, would you mind introducing me to your owner?”

Licking her jaws, Striker shoves her nose into Marco’s palm in response, her ticklish whiskery muzzle drawing a soft laugh in response.

“Ace.” Sensing some kind of cue Ace answers instead, flustered at how kind Marco seemed to be.

“Ace?” Marco queries politely and Ace wants to look away, but out of spite and too much curiosity maintains their weird little staring contest, noting that Marco’s eyes were a very deep blue in colour.

“That’s me.” Ace affirms, mentally slaps himself for making this so awkward, so he tugs on Striker’s collar and whistle clicks for her to stand down. Thankfully after her boisterous greeting, the wolfdog seems far more willing to obey, “—sorry again about her, I dunno why she wanted to jump you like that,”

“Don’t worry about it, she just came home from hunting right?” Marco glances around them at Luffy who has buised himself with securing his grip inside the fish’s gills

“Yeah but that’s still no excuse.” Ace argues back, half heartedly because Marco was correct, the lasting adrenaline had Striker eager to pounce on the next new moving thing.

“Water under the bridge, Ace. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Marco smiles warmly at the younger Prince.

and there was no handshake, no bows, no courtly mannerisms or proprietary to be had when Ace first met and fell in love with his future husband (much to Rouge’s dismay but later was relieved to find out that King Newgate didn’t mind the chaotic introductions one bit)