Sup! I decided to publish something for you to read while I'm still working on the update for Seven Days. Yeah, you don't need to tell me that I'm lazy, I know that.

This story was originally inspired by Reborn In Fire by Aerle, meaning I read it and super loved it, but there was very little about the job as a fire-fighter. What did I do? I browsed the FF in search for a fic that looked into the life as a fire-fighter. Sadly, I didn't find one. Then I decided to take the matter in my own hands and write the fic that I wanted to read. The problem was that I knew nothing about what a fire-fighter did for living. I knew they put out fires, but aside from that... That's where the show called Chicago Fire comes in. Basically, whatever fire-fighter knowledge I have comes from there.

My beta is super mega busy, so this is basically raw, despite lying in my laptop for months.

Song of the chapter: The Royal Concept - On Our Way

Disclaimer: nothing belongs to me... *sob*

The music was loud, so loud, that the whole floor was shaking, creating a feeling of an earthquake. The club 'Sabaody' was one of the better places to go to, if you wanted to shake it off, according to what Sanji told him. When Marco asked, if he'd ever been there, Sanji said that his source was trustworthy. Marco rolled his eyes at that, but still agreed to come.

They met half a year ago, when the restaurant Sanji worked at caught fire and Marco was called there to put it out. They did really good job, keeping the damage to minimal, so, as a 'thank you' Sanji came over a couple times a week to Marco's fire station and cooked lunch for free. The only had to stock the fridge and the best chef in the entire city cooked for them. All in all, they were a very lucky fire station.

Marco was a senior captain and a famous firefighter, one of the best in the country. He was called the Phoenix for being practically indestructible - according to his chief, he should have died a very long time ago because of his recklessness, or, at the very least, became bedridden for the rest of his life. However, Marco was alive and kicking, despite all odds, and now trying to get to the bar through the crammed dance floor, towing Sanji behind him.

Finally they hit the counter, immediately taking the seats, which were abandoned by a couple of teenage girls just a second before they appeared. He could immediately see, why they were sitting there - next to Sanji sat a handsome young man, dressed in simple black t-shirt and light-blue jeans. He was tanned and had really an eye-candy for a body. He had three golden earrings in his left ear and a scar across his left eye. The weirdest thing, though, was his hair - grass-green. All-in-all, Marco could definitely see, why Sanji started drooling right after he spotted the young man.

"What can I get you?" Marco heard, so he turned his head, still smiling at Sanji's expression, to see the bartender.

Really, he should not have laughed at Sanji, because he almost choked, when he saw who was talking to him. The bartender was a young man, probably younger even than the one Sanji was drooling over. He had dark hair, which was put away from his face by several hair pins, dark eyes, freckles all over his cheeks and the brightest smile Marco had ever seen. It didn't help that his, originally a button-up, red short-sleeved shirt was open, so Marco could admire the bartender's torso all he wanted. Another eye-candy... Marco really couldn't understand why the girls left.

"Well?" the bartender asked and Marco snapped out of it.

"Bourbon," Marco answered and shoved Sanji with his elbow, to get attention. "Earth to Sanji, what do you want to drink?"

Sanji blinked and ordered wine. Their order wasn't too complicated, so in a moment he and Sanji got their drinks. At the same time the green haired young man raised his hand to get bartender's attention. The hot bartender flashed another one of his blinding smiles at the young man and walked over to him with a bottle of Jack Daniels. The young man took the bottle and beaconed for bartender to move closer, as he was watching Marco and Sanji intently. When the bartender moved closer, much to Marco's annoyance, the green-haired youth opened his mouth and said, just loud enough for them to hear it, as he pointed at them:

"Look, Ace, a dartboard and a pine-apple."

Marco just raised his eyebrows at that, he knew that his haircut did look like a pine-apple, so he let it slide, but Sanji became red in a second. The bartender just laughed, as he jokingly shoved the green-haired man in the head:

"Don't insult the customers unless you want to pay for every single free drink you had here." Ace turned to them and smiled again. "Please, forgive Zoro here, he never had any manners," he bowed and went to get another order, as the second bartender, a young blue-haired girl, was busy making a cocktail.

They were at the bar for about half an hour, Marco following the hot bartender with his eyes, wondering what was wrong with his self-control, because he didn't usually want to jump people right there and then. Sanji had already gotten into a verbal fight with the green-haired man, who was, if Marco wasn't mistaken, finishing his third bottle of Jack Daniels. Suddenly, Sanji's opponent jumped on his chair and took out his phone. Marco noticed the bartender doing the same and then the bartender left the drink he was making, grabbed his friend and they made their way out of the club.

Marco didn't even have the time to raise his eyebrows, as his own phone went off, so he had to leave angry Sanji alone and run out of the bar. Apparently, there was a big accident, involving a lot of cars on the Grand Line, the circular speedway, which was created to keep the traffic out of the city. The accident was on border between Marco's district, the North Blue, and another district, called the East Blue, so, apparently, they would work together with the firefighters from the East Blue. 'Let's see what they are made of,' Marco thought, as he sped all the way to his station, making it in a record time.

The reason Marco was somewhat sceptical towards the East Blue fire department was because in a week they were moving in together, if you could call it that. Apparently, the mayor thought it was for the best of the town, however Marco was more than a little sceptical. Of course, they'd get a bigger, better premises, but it meant nothing, if they could not get along with the guys from the other station.

"Let's show these East Blue boys how it's done," said Bellamy, one of Marco's colleagues; a bulky man with blond hair and several scars on his face.

"It's not a competition," Marco said, as he put on the protective gear. Sometimes he thought that Bellamy was too full of himself, but he was a good firefighter, so Marco often overlooked it.

"Maybe for you it isn't. You already made a name for yourself, you don't need to compete," said Sarkies, Bellamy's best friend.

"Yeah, just wait 'til they see our Phoenix!" Bellamy and the rest of the crew laughed.

"It's more of a penguin, actually," said Doma, a tall man with black curly hair, who was driving. He meant the crest on the truck, because whoever designed it, had no imagination and had no desire to look up what the hell a phoenix was. As a result, they had a bird, which looked A LOT like a penguin on their crest.

"We need to fix that, it's embarrassing," said another firefighter; Marco just chuckled at that - he liked the penguin, it looked really dorky, as if somebody hit it hard on the head.

Finally, they arrived at the scene, Marco jumped out first, quick to assess the scale of the accident. It seemed that a truck drove into the barrier between lines, turned over and caused a lot of other cars, on both sides, to collide with each other. Marco nodded, as he went to the closest car. It was empty, but on the other side someone yelled:

"I need a hand here!"

Marco ran around the car, to see a male paramedic who treated a person, who was stuck under the car.

"Just a second, I'll call for the guys to lift..." Marco started but he was cut off.

"I need you to drag him out," the paramedic said, as he intubated the person. "Wait 'til I hook him up to a bag, then drag him out, as I lift the car."

"Like I said, I'll get guys..."

"Done, be ready to drag him out," the paramedic stood up quickly, got to the car and really lifted it, not just a little, but half a meter off of the ground. "Get him out!" the paramedic growled.

Marco hurried to drag the person from under the car, while the paramedic held still. The paramedic dropped the car, once he saw that the patient was out. He took the board and said to Marco:

"On three. One, two, three," they turned the patient to the side and got him on the board. "USOPP! Come here, we need to get this guy to Chopper STAT!"

Another paramedic ran over to them. The only thing Marco caught of him was ridiculously long nose, and just like that the two paramedics lifted the patient from the ground and hurried to their ambulance. Marco just shook his head, as he saw 'East Blue Fire Dpt' printed on the back of the jacket of the paramedics. If they had paramedics, who lifted cars like it was nothing, he really wanted to see the firefighters.

Next second Marco had to run over to help his guys to get a family out of the car and he put the weird paramedic away for some time. He worked like hell for the next couple of hours, putting out fires, breaking doors, getting people out of the cars and from under the cars. At some point he thought he saw the young man from the club, who drank Jack Daniels like water, but he didn't have time to check if it was really him.

Sometime after Marco helped that weird paramedic, he noticed something - he wasn't working only with his guys anymore. The North Blue and the East Blue departments had mixed up and worked as a team, no one seemed to care, if the guy next to him was from his original team. Marco smiled at that - there won't be much trouble after all, to get the two departments together.

They stayed on the scene until the tow-trucks came around and dragged the wrecked cars away from the speedway. By that time it was already dawn. Marco stretched his back, as he heard someone say:

"Crap, it's already five... I have to be at dojo at seven..."

Marco recognised the voice - it was the paramedic, who lifted the car. He turned around to get a better look at the body-builder (who else would be able to do that?) and was surprised to see the green-haired youth from the bar in the paramedic uniform. Next to him was the same bartender - Marco recognised him by that blinding smile, despite the fireman's casque. Next to them was the paramedic with the long nose.

"I think I'll just go to Franky's, he's already awake, for sure. That way he won't kick my ass for missing work, because I overslept," said the long nose.

"Hahaha!" laughed the firefighter; his smile even more dazzling. "And I'll be sleeping at the station. Take that!"

"I'll let the whole department play connect the dots on your face next time you'll fall asleep outside the sleeping quarters," said the green-haired paramedic, but without any actual animosity.

Marco watched them bicker, as they went to their respective cars. He had enough time to read their last names on their jackets: 'Lieutenant Portgas', 'Roronoa' and 'Sogeking'. What kind of last name was Sogeking? Marco chuckled, as he went to his truck. He felt oddly happy about several things: one - he'll be seeing more of that smiling kid, two - he got his name - Ace Portgas and three - the kid was a firefighter, like him. Somehow he felt that that name rang a bell, but he couldn't place it.

"They were okay, for the East Blue," said Doma, as he drove back to the station. "I don't know, why I ever thought that Firefist was a stuck-up douchebag."

"Probably just the usual rivalry," Marco leaned back and closed his eyes, but opened them again immediately. That's right - Ace D. Portgas was also known as the Firefist. He was a promising firefighter, who got his name when he literally punched through a door to get into a room in a burning building.

"I have to say - their paramedics are better than ours - they were flying between the hospital and the scene," said another firefighter.

"Yeah, ours were much slower. On the other hand - we don't have the Pirate Hunter to lift cars," laughed another one.

"Why'd they call him that?" asked Sarkies.

"'Cause of his looks," said Doma. "Doesn't he look like he's hunting thugs for living?"

"I heard he's in some world championship," said Sarkies.

"That's just rumours," said Bellamy. "Marco, you have to watch your back, or that Firefist will take your spot."

"Maybe when he's ten years older," Marco chuckled, as they drove into their station. He was lucky enough to have a day off today, so he would take a shower and go home to get some sleep before he had to teach a judo class. He felt somewhat bad for those poor paramedics, who had to go to work right after a sleepless night.

His thoughts went back to the smiling firefighter. Damn, that kid was hot. And the firefighter uniform... It should really be illegal to look that hot, he should be arrested for that... Marco breathed out slowly - he did not just put Firefist, handcuffs and himself into one sentence, let alone allowed his imagination to visualise that…

Marco jumped out of the truck first and ran to the showers. He really needed a cold shower, the sooner, the better.

So, that's the intro to the story. Please tell me what you thought of it, if it's worth writing.

~Rhe