His first though upon waking up was 'I shouldn't be waking up, I'm dead'. Then he had to focus on blinking to make the light that streamed into his eyes less blinding. By the time he could make out his surrounding, his eyes were swimming in tears that had nothing to do with sadness. He squinted and blinked some more, wanting the tears to fall away so that he could finally get a good look at where he was.

The first thing he eventually saw was the ceiling, wooden like the one you found in a ship. Then, he forced his head to move to the side so he could examine his surroundings. Every muscle in his neck protested but he managed it and he found himself gazing at another bed with white sheets, at a table with medical instruments and at a round window that look out to sea.

He was on a ship. Not his ship. Probably in a medical bay. Definitely not his medical bay. If he was, some doctor would be there poking him with all sorts of needles all the while insisting it was all perfectly necessary, even though Luffy knew it was not.

"I see you're awake." a female voice commented from the side he wasn't turned towards.

He resisted the urge to tell her to get on the other side of the bed so he could look at her and painfully turned his head the other way, blinking at the figure towering over him.

She was obviously a nurse. Either that or she liked dressing up as one. But aside from that he had no means of identifying her. He didn't necessarily have a good memory for names but he was usually alright with faces and this was one he was confident he had never seen before.

"Where am I?" he asked, sounding groggier than he liked.

"On the Moby Dick. Marco was adamant we fish you out of the water."

"Marco." he repeated numbly.

"Yes." the nurse confirmed. "I had to send him away to eat a while ago but I imagine he'll be ba…"

She obviously imagined right, because she hadn't even finished her sentence that Marco was strolling in. Luffy's eyes roamed over the man's body, noting absently that he managed to look bored out of his mind even now.

"Marco." he said feebly.

He wanted to cry. He wanted to throw himself in Marco's arms and cry his heart out. But for one thing his body was still asleep and for another he had promised himself long ago that he was never going to cry again no matter what. It had to do with not showing people weakness, or giving them satisfaction and even more importantly not caring. It didn't occur to him at this precise moment that he already cared anyway and that Marco potentially knew that already.

"Luffy. You're awake." the blond said making a beeline for the ex-Marine's bed.

The nurse side-stepped him and took the opportunity to disappear in a back room.

"Uh." Luffy said, forcing his eyes to look towards the ceiling because seeing Marco there was doing horrible things to his heart.

A moment later he felt the mattress dip under the phoenix' weight.

"What happened?" Luffy asked quietly, successfully managing to move his fingers into gripping the sheets.

"I heard the roars and the gunshots and figured something was wrong so I asked Pops to head for your ship but when we got there it had already sank." Marco explained in the neutral tone he only used when he disapproved of Luffy's latest stunt. "It was Namur who found you."

Luffy had no idea who that was but he made sure to file the name away so he could thank him later. Providing he felt grateful when he saw him again.

"I'm surprised Whitebeard went to the trouble of checking on a Marine." Luffy commented, trying to ignore how tight his throat felt.

"I told him if he didn't I'd go on my own." Marco told him, sounding entirely too casual for that kind of announcement.

"Oh." Luffy choked out.

And suddenly he was in motion, clumsily pushing himself up and reaching out to grab Marco's shoulders. Tears were pouring down his cheeks and he knew he was breaking every rule he had ever made for himself but he couldn't bring himself to care. So he cried on Marco's shoulder, and he let the man hold him in his arms and Luffy tightened his hold on him because he was allowing himself to care and he cared so damn much.

He was happy. The feeling washed over him like a warm wave, erasing every doubt and fear he'd had a moment earlier, taking away years of barriers and restrictions.

"It's okay." Marco was murmuring in his ear. "We're okay now."

Luffy wondered what the phoenix was feeling at this precise moment. Was he happy? Was he relieved? But more than that he wondered how long it was going to last. A part of him it seemed, was forever conditioned to doubt.

"Did you know?" Maco asked when Luffy had quieted down – he sounded pained.

Luffy remained silent for a long while, his forehead still pressed into the man's shoulder.

"I found out when I was eleven, that I'm the son of the Revolutionary Dragon." he explained softly. "They call him the Worst Criminal in History, so I knew I couldn't be forgiven for that. They tried to kill Gold Roger's son so why wouldn't they try to kill me? It just made sense. And then…"

He took a shaky breath, hoping to steady his voice.

"Then, two weeks ago, I intercepted an order. An order to kill me, given to my crew. And I guess I was ready then, but I thought I would regret not making a friend even once so I started planning. And that's how we ended up capturing you and that's why I made that deal with you."

"Why did you let me go early?" Marco asked after a long moment of silence.

"The orders changed. The execution was to happen sooner than planned so that they could blame my death on Whitebeard." Luffy pushed himself away from Marco, looking up into the man's eyes. "Why did you save me?" he asked.

Marco briefly looked taken aback.

"Why wouldn't I save you?" he asked before adding derisively. "We're friends after all."

Luffy gripped the man's shoulder so tight that it must have been painful, his lips twisting angrily.

"Marco." he said forcefully.

The phoenix winced due to pain or to ex-Marine's tone, Luffy couldn't tell.

"Because I like you. Is that what you want to hear?"

The answered angered Luffy even more and he threw a punch at Marco's face. Unfortunately his limbs were still sluggish from continued sleep and the phoenix stopped Luffy's fist easily.

"I want to hear the truth!" Luffy snapped. "Why do you have to be so…."

"It is the truth." Marco cut him off.

"UNBEARABLE!" Luffy finished, shouting over Marco's voice.

He would have loved to go on a rant about all the things that made Marco the worse human being on the planet but the phoenix placed a hand on the back of Luffy's head and pulled him into a kiss. Marco's lips were just as rough as Luffy had imagined they would be and he was also – rather annoyingly – a very good kisser.

Luffy's anger dissipated as soon as Marco slipped his tongue in his mouth, deepening the mouth and making Luffy's mind go blank.

"So I was thinking," Marco said after they had pulled apart and Luffy could only stare at him with wide eyes because he, on the other hand, had stopped thinking. "You could stay here. Pops would like you I bet."

Luffy gaped at him.

"Are you…" he stammered. "Are you kissing me to coerce me into becoming a pirate?!" he half-asked, half-shrieked.

"No?" Marco answered, looking far too amused for anyone's good. "I'm coercing you into becoming a pirate so that I can keep kissing you." he said pushing Luffy into his pillows with a searing kiss. "I'd definitely make it into a good deal for you." he murmured licking the shell of Luffy's ear.

"You're unbearable." Luffy muttered weakly.

Marco smirked at him, clearly already knowing that he'd won this round.

"I didn't like being a Marine anyway." Luffy said sulkily.

Marco's smirk grew wider.

"You weren't." he agreed, his thumb tracing shapes on Luffy's hip.

They kissed again.

"I guess being a pirate could be nice." Luffy commented against Marco's lips before pushing the man away before the blond could take this as a personal challenge to show him exactly how 'nice' it could be. "But first I need to talk to Whitebeard."

The displeased look on Marco's face made Luffy laugh. He laughed even harder when his expression turned sulky. This was what it meant to live, he thought.

And it wasn't bad at all.