Third update on the MarcoAce Week. The prompt for today was 'Modern AU', and thinking of something took its time. I didn't want to do a college or high school AU but, unfortunately, my brain at some point while coming up with the plot forgot this was supposed to be an one-shot. This story is going to be long. So long, in fact, that I can't even try to guess how long it'll be (and I can easily guess up to 100k, though I usually fall short in these attempts), so you should probably be afraid here.

I have some people to thank here. First of all, Aerle for beta-reading this (and putting up with some stupid… things… I made with this one), The Red Harlequin On The Luna, who's been helping me work with the camping part of the story and trying to keep serious mistakes to a minimum, and Anjelle, who was there at the first stages of the story and helped me plan where the plot would go.

This said, here is chapter one, I hope you enjoy it :)

Chapter 1

"I've put enough food in there to mostly feed an army for a couple of weeks, but you'll probably have to start hunting in a week or so to fill that black hole of a stomach of yours. You remember all those lessons about hunting, don't you? Also, don't forget the batteries are charged with solar light. You have three, so make sure the two you don't use at the moment are at full capacity. And Ace, don't be an idiot. That phone's signal goes through a satellite, it should be fine, but if there's any problem head for the closest town. And don't you-"

"Alright, alright!" Ace interrupts the tirade, raising both hands. "I get it, okay? Be responsible, don't act stupid, if I run out of anything I have to go somewhere with other people immediately. I understand, Sabo, so stop repeating it!"

Sabo gives him a sceptical look and Ace crosses his arms petulantly over his chest. This has been a common occurrence ever since Ace decided to go on this trip, and the moment classes ended a week ago things just escalated to ridiculous proportions. Sabo has always been the responsible brother, no one argues that, but this has been a little too much. It's not as if Ace hasn't spent time in a forest before, they spent weeks there as kids in many occasions, and they survived. Sabo worries too much. And if Ace wasn't as strong as he is he wouldn't be able to carry the bags his brother has packed for him —because apparently Ace was bound to forget something if he packed them himself.

"I'm just worried, Ace, you'll be there for two months."

"I know," says Ace, sighing.

"Aaaaceee, you really gotta go?" asks Luffy, intervening for the first time since Sabo started his tirade about everything Ace shouldn't forget.

"But that's boring~~!" his little brother whines, as he has been doing from the moment Ace announced his plans for the summer. "You'll be alone, and it won't be fun. Can't we come?" That is something else Luffy has been insisting on. At first, his little brother thought Ace wanted the three of them to go on this trip together, and was very disappointed when he discovered that wasn't the case. Ever since, every time right after Ace says he won't change his mind about going, he has tried to convince him to tag along.

"No, Lu, I'm going alone." Luffy pouts, and Ace has to steel himself not to feel too bad about that. "But you won't be alone. You'll have your friends, and remember Sabo has promised he'll do whatever you want until I come back."

"But you won't be there."

Ace is saved from answering by the voice calling the passengers to the train through the speakers.

"That's me," he says, bending down to pick his heavy backpack with the sleeping bag secured on top of it and slip his arms into the straps. It falls in place against his back, and next he takes his second bag, this one way smaller than the backpack and containing his valuable food, and throws it over his shoulder. He makes sure his belt pouch is secured around his hips and then grins to his brothers.

"See you in two months, guys."

Despite their worry and complaints, his brothers are enthusiastic in saying goodbye and wishing him a good trip. They are by far the loudest ones in the station, and get many bothered looks because of it, but none of them have ever cared about what others might think about them.

As soon as he is in the train car, Ace goes to the still open window to wave at them.

"Don't forget to call!" he hears Sabo yell at him, and he laughs and promises he will.

This has been one of the many topics of discussion during the whole preparation of his trip; there is a forest close to their town, but that is the one where he has spent so much time with Luffy and Sabo, and knows it almost as if it was his backyard. He wants both a place to disconnect from the world and an adventure, and that is why he chose to go a couple of towns over, where there is another forest that will suit him just fine.

But, despite all the arguments over the topic, now everything is fine, they are fine and Sabo and Luffy are running next to the train as it leaves the station, waving and yelling last minute things at him until some security guards manage to stop them to get them out of the area where people is not supposed to be.

Ace grins as he drops the amount of wood he has brought onto the growing pile he has been gathering for the past couple of hours.

It has taken well past a day to reach one of the areas he had marked on the map as possible campsites, and he is reasonably sure it's not very likely someone will stumble upon him here. Just in case, and also just in case some animals get too close, Ace is not stupid enough to be unarmed. He doesn't expect much trouble, though, as this isn't a dangerous area at all: he wants to relax and disconnect from the world, not playing one of the survival games gramps threw him and his brothers into when they were little.

This particular spot was the first option on his list of possible camps, because there is a cave —where he has begun to build camp— close enough to a water stream that he will have no trouble to get water.

And, speaking of the river, now that he has a pile of firewood twice his size, it's time to bring some water and have it purified before doing anything else.

He chuckles as he goes to get one of the two water carriers —Sabo insisted he brought a spare— out of his backpack. It has been some time since the last time he camped with his brothers, and he almost forgot going for the water now just because he still has a couple of litres left from the water he has brought from home. Maybe he should take out that list with instructions Sabo insisted on putting in his belt pouch.

That guy can't help worrying about everything. Not that Ace blames him, having two brothers as Luffy and himself. Sabo was never the most responsible or well behaved kid around, but he had soon to learn to keep an eye on everything to make sure they all survived whatever stupid stunt they pulled at the moment —it would be impossible to count how many times Luffy got lost somewhere or Ace got into a fight he probably shouldn't have— and now that has paid off. Sabo is one of the most well organized individuals Ace has ever met, capable of paying attention to many things at the same time.

He grins when he finds the water carrier, stuffs everything he had pulled out while searching for it back inside and heads for the water stream he already spotted a while ago.

Ace sighs happily, sprawled on the forest ground next to his cave after eating lunch. The grass feels nice against his skin, even against the part that's covered in clothes, though there are some annoying stones, like the one digging into his left buttock. At this hour of the day, the sun shines into the clearing and warms his skin, and there's a soft breeze blowing over his body. All in all, this is the closest to heaven he has felt in a long time.

He really needed to get away. He hates college, this has been his first year there —even if it was Sabo's second— and any ill thoughts he might have had about high school in the past have turned into longing. He did hate high school back in the day, but he could skip classes often enough to make up for it. College, however, is much harder, and skipping classes is but a wistful dream. The workload is also horrible, and he has to spend too many hours sitting doing papers and studying for his liking. This year he tried staying in a dorm room, after all it is Garp who pays and the guy has money, but he didn't like it —his roommate was one of the biggest idiots he has ever met, and there was always noise somewhere— but next year he has decided he would much rather the one hour train ride from home. Sabo won't be there, of course, because he goes to class somewhere much farther away, but there will be Luffy to distract him.

He really needed to get away from everything. And, as much as he loves his brothers, Luffy would have driven him mad right now. And Sabo too, perhaps. The guy isn't as calm as he appears.

He has mentioned his roommate was an idiot, hasn't he? That guy is in part responsible for Ace's current need of solitude, because rooming with someone who doesn't give a fuck about his studies and spends half his time intoxicated one way or another isn't good for one's stress level or productivity.

And he had missed the forest.

Sabo exaggerated —big surprise there— and the food he has packed will last more than a week even if he eats as much as he wants, but Ace is no idiot and he knows he will need to hunt and can't risk running out of packed food. He has already started, and the rabbit he had last night for dinner is a good proof of it.

Rain is beautiful, it is relaxing and it has a lot of songs and stories dedicated to it. Ace likes rain, he really does. Most of the time, anyway. Right now, he fucking hates it, though. His first week of isolation has passed, and it has been great. Up until this point. It started raining early this morning, barely an hour after breakfast, and he didn't think much of it. He took the few things he had outside with him inside the cave, and then moved everything a little further inside just in case the wind changed direction and the rain entered the cave. It hasn't. But it is now over two hours past lunch and it doesn't look like it will stop raining any time soon.

He sighs.

He has already read for the third time the book on the flora and fauna of the area Sabo gave him —he read it for the first time before leaving for his vacation— and there are only so many solitaires he can play with the deck of cards Luffy insisted he should bring before getting bored.

He should probably have brought some other book, too, but he was so intent on spending as much time as possible doing exercise —he hasn't been able to do as much as he wanted during the school year— that he didn't think of it. And apparently not even Sabo is perfect.

He could always doodle something on one of the two notebooks he has brought with him, he knows that, but it's not a very attractive idea right now. He is sick of staying still, and there is only so much space to move about in the front part of the cave.

The front part of…

He grins.

Ace can clearly imagine how Sabo would argue that walking deeper into an unknown cave could be very dangerous, how Luffy would jump happily at the idea and try to dart in before the blond brother managed to hold him back. It wouldn't be hard to convince Sabo, because despite the mature behavior none of the brothers has ever been good at resisting the thrill of adventure.

And with that in mind, he stands up. Ace checks he has everything he needs; the Swiss army knife is in one of his front pockets, a pack of matches is in one of the pockets halfway down his left leg, the lighter is in one of his jacket's pockets along with a couple of energy bars —he has two more of these in another of his pant pockets— the flashlight is firmly held to his belt, just as are the full canteen and the gun, he has the pocket knife in the other front pocket, and his belt pouch has the compass, a can of bacon that could act as three or four meals if he was forced to ration it, a spare battery for the flashlight just in case and a folded bivy sack.

Ace puts the fire out —he doesn't know how long it will take him to come back— takes the flashlight, turns it on and heads deeper into the cave.

He walks through a relatively ample space, with stable but pretty uneven ground. The walls are bare with the exceptions of some crevices, and they catch daunting shadows under the flashlight's glare, but as he advances —ten, twenty minutes— he doesn't see any bifurcation.

He is disappointed, and he doesn't know why. What exactly had he been expecting? He is walking through a cave, a perfectly normal cave. Was he expecting to find some wide cavern further in, perhaps like the mines of Moria from the Lord of the Rings? A dragon hoarding treasure? Green little gnomes hopping around?

Ace is saved from discovering what ridiculous notion his bored mind will come up with next when the flashlight catches a portion of the wall to the right that looks too dark to be a simple crevice.

Grinning, Ace approaches it and directs the light straight into it. Sure enough, it is an opening, and he eagerly shifts the light to look inside. There doesn't seem to be a path, at least not one his flashlight has caught yet, as the light rebounds from solid walls as Ace moves it. It seems that the place is a cavern, though a small one with no magnificent columns or ridiculously narrow paths bordering an apparently bottomless fall. The second fact is somewhat relieving. He is about to turn the flashlight back into the main path when something catches his eye. It's a small patch of color, and he almost passes it over, unnoticed.

At first he thinks it might be something another camper has left behind, but when the light hits it properly he notices it's not. It is a painting. A small drawing in a faded color blue that triggers at his memory. It has a somewhat childish design, and at closer inspection Ace discovers it is a bird. A blue bird.

The reason why it seems somewhat familiar is because he has seen similar paintings before, back in high school, in his history books. In the prehistory chapters. But that is absurd. First of all, all the images he remembers were in warm colors, but this one is blue —and yes, he knows how absurd that excuse sounds, but it is even more absurd to think that he has just found a thousands of years old picture. And a blue bird? Isn't that a little weird. The pigments are somewhat faded, but the color is unmistakable. Are there birds that blue? Not in this area, he is sure of that. Maybe an extinct species?

Curiosity and excitement taking over him, Ace steps into the opening of the small cavern and walks inside. As he advances, a tingling sensation runs over him and he thinks that, real or fake, this is just awesome and he has to take a picture to send to Luffy and Sabo. That's about the time he realizes he has left his phone in his backpack.

Just great.

If his brothers called and he didn't pick it up, he's dead.

He will have to go back to get it and take that picture. Maybe that way Luffy will be sidetracked and forget his anger and Sabo will be curious and interested enough to only scold him.

But first, Ace wants to take a closer look. He walks the few steps separating him from the wall and crouches down to be eye level with the drawing. He is not going to touch it —contrary to popular belief, Ace isn't that stupid— but this way he can see it better. The bird has various yellow tails, and they're hard to count the way they are tangled in that almost childish, lined way, and some yellow on the head, almost as if it is a flame.

He leans a little closer, and he doesn't notice the soft warmth emanating from the wall until there is a burst of light that has him landing on his ass and makes him drop the flashlight, both hands coming up to cover his tightly shut eyes.

The light disappears as fast as it appeared and Ace opens his eyes, lowering his hands as he does so. One hand goes down to close around his gun and he is about to scramble back to his feet when he freezes in place.

There is still light in the cavern, other than what his still on flashlight offers, and it comes from the wall. Or where the wall was. Because there is no trace of the wall Ace had been standing right in front of or the painting on it. No, the wall now it farther away, perhaps five steps, and in the new space there is a bird. A blue bird with three yellow tails curled at its back and an also yellow crown that resembles suspiciously a flame.

In two blinks of his eyes the bird is gone, and all the light comes once more from his flashlight. A flashlight that is directed to the entrance.

Ace jumps to his feel and snatches it up from the floor, his other hand still ready to take his gun out at the minimal sign of danger. He aims the light at the spot where the bird has left and is disconcerted to see a man on its place.

A tall, naked, man with a very well toned body and a strange tuft of blond hair on the top of his head, almost as if he has become bald in the opposite way than the rest of the world.

And he is waking up.

A quick flick of the light over the area proves that there are no weapons around, and Ace takes a tentative step back.

This is all too weird, something he is sure he doesn't understand and not so sure he wants to understand, but there is someone before him that might be hurt, and Ace knows he should try to help.

"Hey," he speaks tentatively.

The man groans and drags himself to a kneeling position facing Ace. He looks older than him —although for some reason Ace is incapable of saying how much older— has blue eyes and is staring groggily at him. He is good looking, Ace fleetingly admits to himself, and in any other circumstance he would be checking out the good looking naked guy before him. But this situation is just too weird for that.

"Are you alright?" he asks in the same cautious voice as before, and takes another step closer when the man only tilts his head to one side. "Are you hurt?"

The man opens his mouth and says something. For some reason Ace is surprised his voice doesn't sound hoarse —why should it, really?— but most of his surprise is centered in the fact that he hasn't understood what the blond has said.

He's foreigner? He wonders, and then: What language was that?

"Don't you speak English?" Another step forward and he stoops down to kneel in front of the man at a small distance.

Some more words Ace can't even guess what language they are, because they don't sound like anything he has ever heard, and he shakes his head.

Just great. Some weird guy appears after a bright, even weirder, light and a plainly absurd blue bird and there's no way to communicate with him.

"I guess you can't tell me how you got here, then," he mutters, looking down moodily, and he almost jumps out of his skin when something touches his face.

It's just two of the blond's fingers, and Ace puts the gun he hadn't realized he had drawn back into place. It is weird, he notes, that the man hasn't noticed it yet.

The fingers trace the side of his face in a slow, downward motion, the man staring at him in what can only be defined as fascination. Ace feels nervous under that look, he has to admit grudgingly. Now that the traces of his unconsciousness are gone, the blond's gaze has become intense, even in that strange half-lidded expression Ace has just noticed he has.

"What?" he asks, and almost grins because his nervousness doesn't show in his voice.

The man smiles in a way that reflects the movements of his hand and, before Ace can realize what is going on, he had leaned forward, cut the distance separating them, and there are lips pressed against Ace's.

He freezes.

There is a mouth pressed over his own —a skilled mouth, his brain notes uselessly— and a hand holding his head, caressing his face in the same slow, soft movements as before. A tongue brushes over his slack lower lip and Ace snaps out of the shock.

He raises both hands to the man's naked chest and pushes with all his strength, taking two steps backwards at the same time.

"What the fuck was that?!" he yells, not caring that the other can't understand —his tone should be more than enough to get the message across— and too angry to be impressed that the man has managed to keep his footing.

The blond must have understood, because he raises both hands before his chest, open and palms visible, and gives him a beseeching look. Ace takes it as an apology, not that he will stop glaring at him because of that. He raises a hand and points to the entrance.

"Go!" he yells, and again it seems the man understands.

He takes a tentative step forward, followed by another, and he slowly heads to the opening, keeping his eyes on Ace as he passes him, but not walking to the side to avoid him. Ace might be a little impressed that the man doesn't seem to be a coward.

The dark haired young man turns on his heels, stalking behind the other man. He keeps his flashlight aimed at the naked back —and ass— and doesn't have to correct the blond because he takes the right direction to head to the entrance of the cave.

There is a tense silence as they walk, not that they could have talked even if Ace had wanted to, and when they reach the front part of the cave the man stops next to the extinguished fire for a moment, and Ace can see his head move as he takes in his camp, before turning to him, a lost expression on his face.

It's still pouring outside, and Ace is not so cruel as to send a naked, helpless man into a forest, much less in this weather. He wouldn't do so even if he gave him some clothes and provisions. He is not so angry that he would be that irrational.

Ace sighs and points to one of the rocks around the campfire.

"Sit."

There is a confused blink —that seems to be the blond man's default expression— but he must have understood, because he nods and does as he has been told.

Letting out another long suffering sigh, Ace sets to start his fire again. It's a good thing he stored so much firewood, because it looks like they will be stuck here until the morning at least.

To be continued