Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Hmm, a 'Merchant Ship' bound to Sabaody was raided and sunk by members of the Revolutionary Army off the coast of Austral’” Thatch reads from the newspaper, his tone dripping in non-belief, “All merchandise was lost to the raid and flames, there are no reported survivors listed from the crew or benefactors that were aboard. Hah ‘Merchant Ship’ my ass.”

“Well, hopefully those Revolutionary folk were able to grab everyone.” Izo says cleaning his pistol, “They’ve really been going on a rampage against Slaver Ships for the last few years, with less and less mercy it seems.”

“Wish it would actually do some long lasting good.” Marco couldn’t help but pipe in, watching the Moby Dick dock at one of their islands. “Unfortunately that ship and those slaves will just be replaced in that terrible endless cycle, they really should be saving resources and aim for the head.”

“Whatever, at least they’re doing what they can to spare those people more suffering.” Thatch tosses the newspaper to the next person wanting it. “It’s too nice of a day to get hung up on that stuff.”

“All right you louts!” Marco calls out once the ship was fully docked, “If you’re going to shore remember your manners and try not to cause any trouble like always!”

The mixed result of grumbles and cheers as everyone started making their disembark had the first mate rolling his eyes as his captain let out a hardy laugh.

“Come now, Marco.” Whitebeard says, pulling his sake out, “Don’t worry too much, they know the consequences of causing issues on our own territory.”

“Still good to let them leave with a friendly reminder, Pops.” Marco says, staring disapprovingly at the drink, “I’d rather not have to assign a hundred different chores again.”

“Fair enough.” Pops chuckles again, “Take Stefan with you, it seems something caught his interest here, plus he can use a walk on land anyways.”

The large dog in question had lifted his head upon docking, his crescent-whiskered snout sniffing the air in interest to something.

“Very well, off you go boy!”

The old dog’s claw scratched against the deck as he seemingly excitedly scrambled to join the disembarking pirates before trotting off into town.

“I wonder what caught his attention this time.” Marco hums watching the flash of white disappear into the crowds, “Last time he was this interested in leaving the ship he brought back three puppies and a chicken… and Haruta the time before that.”

“Who knows.” His Pops chuckles at the memories, “Stefan’s always been particular, if he brings back anything you're in charge of taking care of it.”

“Why me ~yoi?”

“Because I’m too old to.”

“He’s your dog!”

“No he ain’t, he just follows me like the rest of you lot.”

“Tell that to your matching mustaches ~yoi!”

“Nah, go on.” Pops waves him away, “Get with what you're doing today already and stop nagging me.”

“Nagging you is literally half my job.” Marco turns to face his captain fully with a pointed flat look, “And speaking of nagging you, don’t make me hide all the sake again.”

“Hrmmm.”

“Just make sure you drink more than just sake, or I’ll talk the nurses and cooks into watering it down instead.”

“Hmmp. My own son, threatening me and my drinks.” Pops grumbles, setting his sake bottle to the side, “Go on, shoo, Tate’s still here to nag me in your stead, go have some fun and bring me back some of the local sake.”

“Pops!”

Marco rolls his eyes as the old captain laughs at him and takes to the skies. Quickly pinpointing were most of his brothers have ended up, a brothel big surprise there. Rolling his eyes again he spotted Thatch in the Market haggling prices, a few members of his division helping. Izo, of course, was at a fabric shop. Vista and Haruta at a sword shop. And Stefan… was nowhere to be seen… for an old dog he sure can move around quickly when he wants too.

Extending his haki Marco was able to pick up Stefan’s location near the outskirts of town. Marco was impressed the old dog made it all the way over there already but he trusts the animal to find his way back to the ship without a keeper.

Now, he had some medical supplies and maps to buy. By the end of the day his work was done early and he’s already added three new coasters to his collection from the various bars and restaurants his brothers dragged him to in the afternoon.

“Has anyone seen Stefan around?” Marco decides to ask, sliding a new coaster into his pocket? “I’m curious to know what caught his attention today.

“He walked past me a couple of hours ago.” Vista says, “It seemed to me like he was just walking around.”

“He begged me for some street food earlier as well.” Thatch tells him, setting some new drinks down. “He just walked off with it which was unlike him.”

“Maybe he found a lady dog and wanted to impress her.”

“Who says it has to be a lady dog?”

“Who said it had to be a dog at all?

The jokes decanted into a brief and silly conversation about theories on who or what Stefan might be into. Which had had the table rolling their eyes.

“I mean, he is still an animal, who’s to say.” Jozu rumbles behind his drink, ending the debate, “He’s probably back at the ship by now anyways I wouldn’t worry about him.”

“I’m not worried ~yoi!” Marco tells them, “Just curious since it’s been a while, he’s the one crew mate I don’t have to worry about.”

“Aw you wound us, Marco!” Thatch feigned heartache, “and here we thought you loved us.”

“No, I truly hate you all.” Marco deadpans, earning a round of laughter, “Don’t forget your spending reports are due at the end of the week.”

That earned him a round of “boos” before it was swept away in the growing party as more booze and brothers joined them.

It wasn’t until early morning when most of them meandered back to the ship. Sure enough Stefan was laying in his usual place by Pops’ chair and nothing seemed out of the ordinary as the old dog snored on not even nothing to wake up at the returning crew.

Marco gives him a rub between the ears, earning him a rumble from the beast, before heading to his quarters. It was the beginning of the next day, and he had work to do.

Chapter Text

Around noon was when someone noticed anything out of the usual… and it was Thatch.

Now, Thatch isn’t one to make people eat when they don’t want to due to the vast differences in how people view and handle food… but it does draw his concern when someone… or rather some dog, misses two meals. Now one meal is fine, especially after a night out away from the ship, he could have found something for himself no problem, but Stefan missing two meals usually means there’s something off.

That beast was always begging for food and was usually bugging him right before meal time to get the cooking scraps.

So here he was, on his way to Pops with his food, taking Stefan’s bowl with him to find the beast and make sure he’s eaten something today or at least figure out why he’s not eating and have Marco deal with it.

Sure enough, both crescent-stashed beings were in their usual spots. Pops grinning at something while drinking his usual frowned upon sake and Stefan laying next to his chair, head resting on his paws but tail wagging.

That was a good sign hopefully.

“Afternoon Pops!” Thatch calls out to announce his presence to the giant man, “Here is your lunch, as well as Stefan’s because he didn’t come to the kitchen like usual.”

“Thank you son.”

“So what’s up with Stefan?” Thatch pries a bit giving the dog a pat earning a grunt. “Did he manage to get into something he wasn’t supposed to? Should I call Marco over?”

“He’s fine.” Pops tell him, a grin filled with slight mischief crossing his face. “Just has something he shouldn’t and doesn’t want people to know… but that’s Marco's problem, not mine.”

“Oh! Please tell me it’s another chicken!” Thatch asks, ideas on how to potentially tease his brother running through his head, “or at least some kind of bird!”

The Chef tries lifting the dog’s head from his paw to get a look at their newest friend, earning some growls. He knows they probably won’t keep it, given they’ll be at port for another three days which gives them plenty of time to return it.

“Not a bird I’m afraid.” Pops said as Stefan growls at him and nips at his hand. “And good luck getting Stefan away from them… you might want to call Marco over regardless.”

“How come…?” Thatch’s question answered itself upon seeing a patch of red on Stefan’s fur when the dog shifted a bit, “Oh… It’s injured, isn't it.”

“Unfortunately so.”

“Arightly then! One flaming blue first mate post-haste!”

Thatch was more than happy to fetch Marco, even if it’s not a bird he still wants to see Marco’s face when he tells him Stefan brought home something.

“Oh Marco!” Thatch calls out, practically gliding into the Medbay, “Pops wants to see you, Stefan has a new toy.”

Marco stared at him from over the rims of his glasses, face impassive, before dropping his head in defeat with a deep sigh.

“What is it?”

“I have absolutely no idea.” The Chef tells him honestly, “but whatever it is it’s also injured. Stefan even growled at me when I tried to check, he really wants to keep it this time.”

“Alright.” Marco stood up to stretch, “But you’re helping me deal with it this time.”

“That’s ok.” Thatch follows behind as they head back to the deck, “I don’t have much to do until dinner prep anyways.”

It was a short affair getting back to Pops, his grin still there while he enjoyed his food. Thankfully Stefan’s bowl was also empty but the dog himself looks like he hadn’t moved outside of licking the leftovers from his lips.

“Alright Stefan.” Marco squats down next to the dog. “Give it here.”

Marco was met with growls that grew louder the more the closer his hands got.

“Keep acting like that and I’ll tell all the kitchen staff no more sneaking you extras.” The beast still growled as he let out a huff, “That will include all the Sea King bones as well.”

Not wanting to lose his favorite treat the dog reluctantly lifted his head… and revealed something they weren’t expecting at all.

Half hidden by Stefan’s fur and half by his body, in a mess of black hair and tattered clothes, was a child.

A human child.

“Oh my god!”

Marco pulls the kid closer to him, carefully prying away the small hands that held Stefan’s fur in a vice grip, his flames already burning and ready to heal. It was clear this was not someone from this island but that was a matter for another time, this kid needs help.

“I need to get him to the infirmary right away.” Marco says as he looks him over, “Thatch, can you grab Curiel and Izou.”

That’s when Marco noticed the kid’s eyes were half open.

“And make something for him to eat that’s easy on the stomach.”

“Of course.”

Stefan follows after the bird as Thatch went to do his new tasks. Curiel was easy to spot from across the deck with his watermelon hat in his usual spot cleaning his gear.

“Hey man.” Thatch greeted him, “Marco needs your help with something.”

“Does it have something to do with whatever Stefan had that Marco just carried away?”

“Yep!”

“What tools will I need?” The man puts his bazooka away and gives his full attention. “And what am I dealing with?”

“Your lock-picking kit most definitely…” Thatch tries to think, “and maybe your cutters, there are chains not sure what the quality or material is however.”

“Alright then.”

“Have you seen Izou today by chance?”

“He and Haruta were getting into it about clothes designs about an hour ago.” Curiel tell him, rifling in his tool box, “Check either of their rooms for them.”

“Thanks, I’ll see you later then.”

Thatch swerves of to his next destination of Izou’s room where he found the two scribbling designs in sketchbooks.

“Hey Izou, Marco has a job for you.” Thatch pops his head in the doorway, “Head over when you're finished.”

“Sure sure.” Izou says before turning his book to him, “What do you think about this?”

“No, look at mine!”

Both books held interesting yet surprisingly well designed outfits that mixed the Traditional Wano-style clothing Izou favors with the Southern Flounce that Haruta favors.

“Hmm, they both look good, but I’ll favor Izou’s on this one Haruta.” Thatch tells them, “Consider less padding in the shoulder and adding in some more ruffle along the bottom edges.”

“Ohh, good idea.”

“I take it Marco also gave you a job?” Izou asks, already cleaning up his mess while Haruta adjusts his design. “He’s in the medbay right?”

“Correct on both accounts, it should take me about half an hour.” The Chef tells the Samurai, “I can probably guess what he wants but it’s better to get the details from him, maybe bring your tape measure.”

“Very well.” Izou says, “See you later.”

“Is this a secret thing or can I know?” Haruta asks with interest, following him out. “Please tell me it’s a secret thing I want to figure it out.”

“It’s not a secret thing.” Thatch disappoints his brother a bit, “However, it’s not not a secret thing yet so… have fun. My only rules are no asking Pops, no snooping in the Medbay until I say you can, and give it a few days before you start in earnest, then there’ll be more information for you to try and dig up.”

“Awe you're no fun. Do I have a time limit?”

“No, but I’ll tell Marco what you’re doing so it’s not revealed too fast for you.”

“Perfect!”

They split in the hall, Thatch heading towards his kitchen and Haruta… probably going to pester their brothers on any new rumors now.

“There you are!” One of the other cooks says as the rest of them finish cleaning up, “You certainly took a long time.”

“Sorry, something came up.”

“And that something is already going to have you cooking before dinner prep?” His brother asks as he pulls out a freshly cleaned pot and pan. “We just finished cleaning!”

“That’s right, but don’t worry.” Thatch tells them, dancing around the kitchen. “You guys are free until dinner. I'll clean up my mess like always now shoo.”

He had a child to feed.

Chapter Text

Marco had many mixed emotions running through him as he carries the small child to the infirmary.

Annoyance, anger, worry, confusion and everything the swirled between.

He could pin point where each of them came from in this situation but dealing with them is something he’ll have to handle later.

The boy, while awake, wasn’t very responsive. His eyes were alert, which was a good sign, but he only stared at him. Made no move to fight, no move to run, or plead, or cry. Just stared. It was kind of unnerving but given the circumstances he can’t blame the kid.

“Hey there kiddo.” Marco gently sets him down on his exam table, “Can you tell me your name?”

“…”

The Kid didn’t answer him and Marco starts examining him.

That was fine. This boy clearly wasn’t from this island given the tatter… Well, Marco’s not even sure he would call them clothes at this point, the malnourishment, the injuries, and the chains around his limbs.

He was an escaped slave. That much was clear.

“How about you tell me how you got to the island?”

“…”

Marco touches one of the cuffs, his knees almost giving out by how quickly his energy drained from him. 

“Sea Stone huh?” He rhetorically asks, shaking off the effects, “A Devil Fruit user are you? Must be a pretty strong one if they put the heavy duty chain on you.”

The Kid just stares at him still, his blank eyes never leaving Marco's face as he moves around tending to him.

Blood sluggishly seeped from various areas were there was what looked to be like shrapnel in his cuts. Patches of skin had burns, matching the burnt edges of his clothes. Must have been caught in an explosion, would explain how he got away. Salt and sand from the sea was crusted on his dry skin as Marco wipes away the dirt and grime.

“If I name off the different seas will you nod to the one you are from?”

“…”

“Grand-Line? Calm belt?” Marco starts carefully removing some shrapnel from the boy’s arm. “North Blue? East Blue? How about South blue? Or West Blue? You could very well be from the New World, no?”

“…”

The Kid still gave no reaction, not even from pain as the small pieces of metal and wood were removed and wounds stitched.

“Can you at least give me a sign you can understand me ~yoi?”

At this the Kid simply tilted his head a bit, which was at least something but also… didn’t clear things up.

“Hey Marco- woah.” Curiel enters and stops before quickly recovering from what he see, “That’s what Thatch meant when he said to bring the tools.”

“Yeah, high quality Sea Stone.” Marco tells him, “Check for a bomb, then get one of the wrists freed so I can put the bracelet on.”

“Right.” The other Commander sets his tools down on the table. “Going behind you kid. Please don’t freak out…”

Marco kept cleaning and treating wounds as he found them. There were clear signs of torture, both old and new making it hard to gauge how long he’s been a slave for. Not that Marco can even tell how old he was… At least seven, at most… he could be twelve? It really depends on how much the lack of nutrition affected his growth.

The Kid no longer watched Marco, instead his focus was on Curiel, watching from the side of his eyes as the gunman messed with his collar. He was smart, not moving his head to fully track the man behind him as he fiddled with it.

Marco was about to lift the ‘shirt’ up to check the Kid’s torso when the child flinches slightly right before a click sounded and all three froze.

The collar fell from the Kid’s neck, leaving behind a ring of molten bruises and cuts from where the metal bit into his skin. The first sign of freedom, Marco hopes, as he checks the newly revealed injuries.

“There we go!” Curiel said, moving back to the Kid’s side where he can be fully seen, “I bet that feels better! Now, let’s get these ones off!”

Marco heard Stefan scratching at the door behind him right before Izou walked.

“Well now, no wonder that dog is looking so pitiful outside.” Izou says, closing the door on Stefan before the beast could sneak in. “Hi there young man, what’s your name?”

“…”

“He hasn't said a word yet.” Marco tells him, examining the Kid’s neck closer, “Not sure if it’s because he doesn’t want to, which is understandable, or because he can’t.”

“Well, he’s definitely in poor condition.” Izou notes, pulling out a notepad, “I can whip up some simple clothes for him no problem, assuming that’s what you want from me. What he’s wearing now I wouldn’t even reuse as rags.”

Izou was rather quick getting his measurements. The Kid watching the Samurai’s hands. As Marco ends up cutting the shirt off revealing how skinny the boy was along with the injuries underneath.

“Now then.” Izou held out a ring of colored fabric, “Do you want to pick a color or two?”

Marco half watches as he stitched a nasty looking gash on the Kid's side. The colors seemed to at least interest the boy a bit but still made no move to respond. His eyes glanced at the colors as Izou gently placed the ring in his small hands.

“Pick whichever colors you want.” Izou tells him softly, “You can have as many as you want.”

The kid’s eyes never left Izou’s face as his fingers grasped onto the strips of red, blue, and yellow.

“Very well then.” Izou notes the colors, “I’ll be happy to add more later, do you want to keep that to play with for now?”

The Kid simply tilts his head again, his fingers releasing the colors as if he hadn’t realized he grabbed them in the first place.

“I’ll get something started. Thatch will probably be around soon.”

“Thank you Izou.”

There was a whine from Stefan as his entrance into the room was once again denied from the exiting person.

“Got it!” One of the cuffs on the boy’s wrists drops to the table with a heavy clank. “Whoever had him really didn’t like him.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Look how short the links are.” Curiel points to the chain... “These were purposely shortened to make it hard for him to move, it’s a miracle he’s managed to get away at all let alone far enough to not be found.”

“Well, maybe that’s why Stefan brought him here.” Marco guesses, frowning at the brand he found burnt into the kid’s shoulder before he covered it with a gauze pad. “I’ll have someone look around, see if there’s any strangers sniffing around. If so, they picked the wrong island to chase him too.”

They went back to work on the kid. Curiel managed to get the other wrist cuff off but the ankle ones gave him some issues, their locks seemingly made a different way.

“Hey kiddo.” Marco draws his attention as he bandages his wrists before pulling out a Sea Stone bracelet. “I’m going to put this on you alright? It’s Sea Stone, but you can remove it whenever you want alright? It’s just until we’re finished here. We don’t want any Devil Fruit related accidents because we scared you or upset you okay?”

“…”

No response as expected, but the Kid didn’t pull his wrist away as Marco gently clasps it around his wrist.

“I bring sustenance!” Thatch spins into the room, bowl in hand. “For you, dear child!”

…

…

“Awe man. Please try my food.” Thatch dramatically folds over as he begs, “I promise it's good. I’ll even show you it tastes okay!”

Thatch took a bit of the food. He’s always good with kids, especially traumatized ones. His loud personality, friendly disposition, and the fact he always had food on him made it easy for people to be drawn to him, but it seems to have little effect on this kid.

He handed the Kid the bowl, hoping it would prompt him to eat and Marco swears he saw the Kid’s nose twitch a bit.”

“If you’re worried about anything, fear not. Food has no cost on this ship.” Thatch tells him with a grin. “But a smile wouldn’t hurt.”

The kid looks at the food before taking a small bite… followed by another and another.

“There’s plenty more as well.” Thatch tells him as Curiel decides to cut the ankle cuffs off. “Let’s see how your stomach handles this and then I’ll get you some more, all right, kid?”

“…”

“Thank you, Thatch.” Marco says for the boy, “I’ll come grab some more for him later if he wants some.”

“All done!” Curiel smiles up at the boy as the last cuff falls from around his ankle. “I bet that feels better doesn’t it?”

There was no answer but there was a shift as Curiel removed the chains from the table. The boy didn’t necessarily perk up but Marco can tell from his own experience with Sea Stone and chains that a weight seemed to leave the Kid, seemingly giving him more energy. Which was really good since his powers will need that energy to help heal him later.

“I’m off to start the dinner prep.” Thatch takes the bowl the kid emptied, “See ya later.”

Just as Thatch and Curiel leave, Izou returns with clothes. Stefan manages to make his way in much to Marco’s dismay, only letting it slide because he’s going to have to clean the area afterward anyways and the dog’s presence might help the Kid relax a bit.

“Alright let’s see here.” Izou held up the clothes to the boy, “I made them a bit big so you can grow into them, what do you think?”

The clothes were a simple red shirt and a pair of blue shorts. 

“I think they will do for now.” Izou states not bothered by the Kid’s lack of response, "However, if the Doc agrees, I would like to take you to take a bath. What do you think? Stefan can come too since he’s also dirty.”

“A quick one- This is going to hurt kid, alright.” Marco agrees, frowning as he sets a broken leg with no flinching, “It will do more good than harm to have him all clean.”

Marco did one final check as Izou waits. There was nothing very life-threatening in terms of injuries on the boy but a number of his wounds showed signs of infection from lack of treatment. He’s definitely going to have to keep the boy monitored for the week in case he’s missed something. There were a lot of unknowns at play here but nothing he hasn’t had to deal with before.

“Alright.” Marco uses his healing flames again to boost the process, “He’s all set, don’t let him walk on that leg and bring him right back here.”

“Of course.” The Kid allowed Izou to pick him up with no fuss, getting a good look at his hair. “I’ll have him back in an hour… maybe two. Come on Stefan.”

Marco couldn’t help but chuckle as Stefan was dragged out by his scruff with a whine but knowing better than to fight Izou on bath time.

Shaking his head Marco refocused, pulling out a new note book and began writing down everything he learned from the exam. He'll need it when he reports to Pops later.

He can tell this was just the beginning.

Chapter Text

“I think you’ve lost your dog.” Marco tells Pops, “He’s been by that kid’s side this whole time. He’s even let Izou bath him with no fuss!”

“I can see that.” Pops answers with a smirk, "Doesn't he look very nice?”

The pair in question were curled up in the corner of a spare room instead of the bed because the Kid, for whatever reason, refused to actually lay down in it. Stefan, now all nice and groomed, was given a necktie for some reason making him look more like a dapper pet than a beast on a pirate crew as he kept watch over the Kid. The kid, who was finally asleep and curled up against Stefan’s stomach using him like a pillow.

“For someone in his situation he has a lot of energy.” Marco tells him, “I used my flames on him three times to help boost his healing before he started being tired.”

“His chances of survival?”

“High at the moment.” Marco answers, pulling over his report from the desk, “He’s sick and injured, no doubt, but he’s not fighting me on treatment and he seems strong. Plus he didn’t throw up what he ate earlier or the two helpings he got for dinner.”

“That’s good at least.”

“Most of his current injuries are relatively minor.” Marco turns the page, “Outside of the typical expected abuse that slaves endure, the bruises and lashes, he has injuries that correlate to being exploded into the sea, some broken bones, low body temp, dehydration, and malnutrition.” 

“Must have managed to grab onto some debris.” Pops deducts, “And his old ones?”

“There’s a lot and I’m not sure I like the story they paint. However, given how this world is, I could be wrong.”

“Really?” Pops looked closer at the kid, who’s skin didn’t look as scarred as it actually was to an untrained eye, “I can’t see anything outside the current injuries and that one on his face.”

“They faint, he appears to heal rather well from most injuries. Got some good epidermis.” Marco explains, “And ironically, that one on his face was well treated and at least a few years old, looks like professional or experienced work.”

“And the rest?”

“The biggest he has is a large gash across his back from a blade of some kind, presumably got it when he was caught by whoever enslaved him.” Marco says, “It was poorly treated from what I can tell it’s also only a year or two old.”

“And the rest?”

“Most seem to be from the last two years or so.” Marco continues, “But his life before didn’t seem to be that good to him either. There’s faint scars telling me that he was injured a lot growing up.”

“How so?”

“For one, he has a lot of animal related injuries, claws and bite marks so unless he grew up in the wild or was running around a jungle, he was left exposed to dangerous animals.” Marco flips to another page while Pops listens. “The most concerning are old signs of torture. Something long and thin was used to slice and stab him repeatedly along with a few faint burns and cuts that all seemed to have been treated, but not as well as before, and not as bad as his back.”

“Hmm, we’ll have to ask him if he wants to go home then, like you said, you could be wrong and he has people who love him, hoping for his return.” Pops scratches his chin. “I’m not opposed to letting him stay here, not the first time we’ve had kids on the ship, most likely won’t be the last, but ultimately it’s his choice. We can always find a nice island with people willing to take him in.”

“I fear we won’t get much of a response.” Marco leans back in his chair, “He doesn’t even answer yes or no questions let alone anything verbally.”

“Is it from the trauma? Or simply can’t speak?”

“That’s the thing, I have no idea.” Marco leans back forward. “It’s not disassociating or a fear of responding and I didn’t feel anything wrong with his throat that suggests vocalization issues. On top of that he’s very much aware of what’s going on around him and what we are doing. He just… doesn’t answer.”

“Hmmm.”

“On the other side, it could be that he doesn't know or remember anything and is simply just accepting whatever is going on.” Marco adds on, looking at the sleeping kid. “Or he’s mentally locked away parts of himself and only he subconsciously knows the key to unlocking them, neither are ideal and can only be answered with time or maybe a clue to where he came from.”

“Well, in the meantime he’s welcome to stay here.” Pops stands to leave, giving Stefan’s head a rub, “I’ll have Namur reach out to his contact in the Revolutionaries when he rotates back, they might be able to track down some information for us. If it looks like his original home isn’t a safe place we have other options.”

“Oh yeah, don’t tell Haruta about him.” Marco adds offhandedly, “They want to see how long it takes to figure out what’s going on.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for the betting pools once word gets around.” Pops chuckles at the request, “There’s nothing that stays secret on this ship, especially with so many brothers around and Hurata is our Intelligence Division Commander.”

“Eh, we’ll see.” Marco closes his report, “I might rope some others into helping mess with him, maybe the kid himself if he’s up for it.”

“Sounds fun, I’ll just watch from my seat, you know the rules.” Pops grins at the foretold mischief, “Might help the runt open up. Don’t stay up all night, I know you didn’t sleep last night.”

“Yeah yeah, I’m just going to monitor the kid, make sure nothing happens.” Marco waves him off, “If I need to I’ll just use the perfectly good bed that someone refused to use.”

Pops rolled his eyes as the large man grumbled away, something about ‘a hypocrite’, leaving the door cracked so Stefan can leave when he needs to.

Marco stood, pulling along an extra blanket to drape over the Kid. Carefully checking his work and making sure nothing was still bleeding. Once satisfied he tosses the blanket over.

Marco pauses when the Kid stirred, curling around the blanket before rolling over, opening his eyes a bit, giving him a bleary blink.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” Marco quietly tells him, “Go back to sleep.”

“...mmmm…” the boy lets out the first sounds he’s made as a sleepy groan as he closes his eyes again, “…bo…”

Marco didn’t hear most of the word, only saw the kid’s mouth move before it was obvious the kid fast asleep again.

Letting out a sigh of relief Marco returned to the desk to add the newest information before he gets some sleep.

…

…

Marco jolts awake at the sound of something shuffling. He had fallen asleep while updating his notes and writing out a plan of action for the kid in case he ends up staying for a while.

Now, something was moving around.

Cracking an eye open, it was the Kid, now awake again. He was looking at himself and around as if he’s just realized something. Quickly closing his eye when he saw the kid look at him, Marco decided to listen and see what the Kid would do.

There was more shuffling… followed by a *thwap* sound that reminded him of a rubber band hitting something. It was both random and sudden enough that it had Marco cracking his eye open again.

Stefan didn’t look alarmed, tail wagging as the kid held his face like something smacked him but otherwise looked unbothered by whatever happened. The old dog stood and stretched, letting out a big yawn as he did.

The kid gripped Stefan’s fur for support and got up as well, following the dog.

Curious… Marco wonders where they were going to go, sitting up after they’ve left the room.

… Man his back was sore, he really should have made it to an actual bed before falling asleep…

Chapter Text

Thatch yawns as he makes his way into the kitchen early. As head of his division as well as the Head Chef, it was his responsibility to get up and make sure dinner shift actually cleaned up and prepped for breakfast like they were supposed to as well as get the breakfast started while other chefs come in and out over time.

He hardly blinked at someone sitting at one of the many empty tables, newspaper and coffee in hand. The kitchen has an open door policy, drink and non-perishable foods were free for anyone looking for extra food or a midnight snack to grab.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes after another yawn and grabbed his own coffee. At first glance everything looks great, but usually when looking closer there’s one or two things that were missed and he’s have to take care of.

For instance, someone left the pantry open and there were a few pots left soaking in the sink. Rolling his eyes he quickly scrubbed and set the forgotten dishes to dry and looked at the list of breakfast food planned.

Thatch stretched and started turning on the stoves and ovens, pulling out various pots, pans, and trays before making his way over to the pantry to grab what he needed.

“Morin’ Stefan.” Thatch yawns out as he grabs things and sets them by his work station… only to blink realizing that the dog was in his pantry. “Stefan?”

Now… as much as Stefan likes sneaking human food Thatch has never once found him trying to get into the kitchen, let alone the pantry so he walks back in to make sure he wasn’t just tired and mistaken…

Nope, the white beast was certainly there, along with the kid who was practically tearing into their supplies of apples… Only to freeze and press himself close to Stefan as if to blend into his fur upon realizing Thatch had come back.

Right…

He and Stefan had a staring match, the dog meeting his gaze as his tail wags behind him playing innocent.

Did Marco know his patient was in here? If not there’s going to be one pissed off and worried chicken stomping around.

“Stefan…” Thatch starts carefully, watching the child flinch a bit, “You’re not supposed to be in here. If you wait in the dining room I’ll bring you something to eat, alright?”

Thatch grabbed a few more things, planning to make the child something special and didn’t direct his attention towards him as he left.

Peaking his head through the service window he looked at the person sitting in the dining room and felt relieved. It was Marco. So he definitely knew the kid was in the middle of raiding his food stores… that jerk…

Setting a new pan aside on the heat he quickly started his prep before grabbing some eggs and various other things and got to work whisking everything together into omelettes while he jumped between his other tasks while watching Stefan lead the kid back out from the corner of his eye.

He popped some biscuits into the oven, plated the omelettes, and grabbed two plates and Stefan’s bowl before waitering everything out.

“A little warning would have been nice.” Thatch sets the plate of folded eggs before Marco, the Kid and Stefan were sitting under the table as he plated an omelette for Marco, “These should be easy enough on his stomach.”

“Thank you~yoi.” Marco set the paper aside, “What did they get into?”

“Only the apples.” Thatch folds his arm with an unimpressed look, “Thanks for that by the way.”

“I’m sure you could spar an apple.”

“Nah, the kid’s hungry.” Thatch grins at his brother, “I think I saw at least a dozen cores sitting next to them when I walked in.”

“What!”

“Yep… The kid seems fine.” Thatch tells him, “I say let him eat until he’s done… and see how he handles it.”

“Hmmm…”

“I know you don’t like that idea, but if we know his limits it will be easier to get him fed properly.”

“Fine.”

Thatch turns to plate an omelette for the kid… only for the plate to be mostly empty, only one omelette remained… The only other omelettes to be seen is the one on Marco’s plate… and one in Stefan’s bowl that the dog was happily enjoying. The rest was just... gone.

“What the…?”

Thatch and Marco lean over to look under the table to see the kid just sitting there, pressed against the dog… evidence of omelette on his face yet no folded eggs in sight…

They were already all gone…

Thatch sat upright and… slouched, head in hand while Marco chuckles cutting into his own omelette. Both dread and excitement started to settle over him.

“That’s rather unexpected.” The bird muses leaning against his hand, “Looks like we have a black hole on our hands and our work cut out for us.”

“You only need to monitor his nutrition!” Thatch points at him, “I’m the one who has to cook it all!”

“You say that like you aren’t about to drag him into the kitchen as your ‘taste tester’ and feed him while cooking.”

“I wasn’t, I was thinking I might have finally found someone to eat all the unwanted left overs.” Thatch admits with a sudden giddy grin, “But thank you for the idea!”

Thatch grabs the last omelette and leans back over, scaring the kid a bit.

“Hey there Kiddo.” Thatch offered out the plate, "Are you still hungry? Want to finish this off for me?”

The Kid blinked at him before pointing a finger at him.

“Oh? You mean you left this for me?” Thatch was surprised when he got a small nod, most hungry people would have just eaten it, “Well I’m not hungry yet so you can go ahead and have it.”

The kid didn’t move.

“I promise! You can have it.” Thatch holds the plate a bit closer, “I’m in the middle of making more food, there’s plenty to go around. You can have as much as you want!”

The kid stared at him, which was unnerving and when Thatch blinked the last omelette was gone and swallowed before Thatch could even see if he chewed.

“I have to get back to cooking soon, do you want to come watch?” Thatch asks, getting no reply, “You can even try some things and let me know what you like? What do you think?”

The answer he got was the kid tucking himself closer to a very happy Stefan.

“Alright then.” Thatch concedes, “Maybe another time.”

“Not interested?” Marco asks once Thatch returns upright, picking up the newspaper again. “Not surprised about that.”

“Yeah well, we’ll give it time.” Thatch leans back with a heavy sigh, “He’s a fast little bugger, I blinked and that omelette was just gone.”

“Probably a survival skill he picked up.”

“Anything interesting in the paper today?”

“A bit.” Marco folds it over, “It seems like Garp the Fist and Red-Hair got into a confrontation and nearly wiped out an island, several other crew were captured by the Marines as a result but his crew seems to have gotten away.”

“Again? Wow that Old Man seems intent on… catching him…”

Thatch trailed off a bit because the kid suddenly popped up at the edge of the table, looking at them intently. Did something they say catch his attention?

“Interesting…” Marco shifts to pay more attention, laying the paper down to show the pictures of the Marine Hero and the Pirate Captain from the article. “Shanks has grown more and more active and known in the last few years.”

“Yeah, based on his current path he’s going to probably be aiming for one of us Emperor crews sooner or later.” Thatch matches the conversation, watching the Kid as he perks up the mention of the Red-Haired Captain. "I honestly hope it's not us, Big Mom can probably get knocked down a peg or two. I'm surprised that the Marines are letting the 'Hero of the Navy' go after him so much."

“Yeah, Garp probably remembers him from when he was a Cabin Boy on his old crew.” Marco adds… getting mixed results as the kid perks up at Garp’s name as well, “The old coot is probably trying to stop him from following too closely to his previous Captain.”

The Kid stares at the paper with that blank state, giving no hint at which of the two people in the article he was staring at… but it was obvious, this kid knew one of them… but which one? Or was it a fluke?

Thatch caught Marco’s eyes as he turned the page to an article about a new pirate on the scene.

“The 'Tyrant' Kuma killed a noble King who was attempting to reclaim his kingdom from usurpers in the South Blue…” the Kid lost interest, ducking back below the table edge. “Garp the Fist is hailed as a hero as citizens reunited with their kidnapped loved one after the confrontation with feared pirates Red-Hair Shanks…”

And the kid was back…

“Say Marco, you’ve met both Shanks and Garp before haven’t you?”

“I have.”

“What are they like?”

“Well Red-hair is a brat.” Marco smirks as he reminisces, “He and that blue haired fellow would always follow their Captain around like lost puppies, he’s definitely come a long way since the last time I saw him.”

The Kid’s attention was now adamantly focused on Marco.

“As for Garp… Well let’s just say don’t get hit by one of his punches.” Marco warns, “That man throws cannon balls with his bare hands for fun.”

”Sounds terrifying.”

However the results continued to be inconclusive. The Boy remained focused on Marco at the mention of both people but at least it was something they could work with now.

The kid made a face like he smelt something bad and that when Thatch remembered what he was originally doing.

“My biscuits!”

Chapter Text

Man his head hurt. Who knew that mission would go so disappointingly well.

His been in the Med-bay for the last week and a half thanks to getting almost blasted through a wall and having fire, blunt force, and sinking ships as the source of all your trauma but alas, work stops for no man and he’s already been down longer than usual.

‘A precaution’ Dragon had said.

Which… was honestly fair since he’s had strong recurring headaches for the last week. Without Iva around he’s got to settle for basic pain killers and the like…

“Sa-“

Now Dragon wanted to see him about the mission. Probably to discuss how to avoid losing the slaves they’re rescuing during the missions.

“-Bo!”

It was unfortunate but it happens… not everyone can be saved…

“SABO!” Two hands slapped his cheeks and tugged them painfully. “Are you listening to me!”

“Yes Koala.”

“Lair!” She snaps at him, letting go of his face, “I wanted to talk to you before you’re summoned by Dragon. Have you seen Hack recently?”

“No, but I heard he’s feeling pretty down about that one he failed to saved.”

“I know, what should we do?”

“I’ll think of something, but I’m heading to Dragon’s office right now, maybe I’ll think of something while I’m there.”

“He’s already summoned you? Why?”

“Don't know, but no point in waiting.” Sabo tells her, rubbing his eye as pulses. “Maybe see if you can’t track Hack down and cheer him up a bit.”

“Still having the headaches?” 

“Yeah, doc says they can’t do much about them, that they could be related to my amnesia.”

“What will you do if your memories finally return?”

“What I’ve always done.” Sabo answers honestly, “Help Dragon fight against the nobles, nothing will change that, I promise.”

Koala gave him a sad smile before they went down separate paths, clearly not fully believing him but it was the truth. He doubts that there’s anything in his past that would be important enough to leave the Revolutionaries for.

Sabo did partly lie, it wasn’t just the headaches… he’s also been having nightmares… he blames that slave they lost just a bit… if he hadn’t set off the gunpowder causing a chain reaction he would be okay… but also if he hadn’t… Sabo probably would have been caught… but for some reason he could get their face out of his head…

He stopped at Dragon’s door, shaking the thoughts from his mind. Oh well, now time to find out what Dragon wants.

“Come in.”

Dragon sat frowning at the papers on his desk, sorting through them, crossing some things off, marking some things down. Looking no worse for wear overall but lately he seemed to be carrying more stress.

“Did you call me here for a report? Sabo asks, taking a seat. “Or a new mission?”

“Both.”

“Right, what do you want to start with?”

“The report, I already have Koala’s and Hack’s version, but I wanted to hear yours since you were on the inside.”

“Hmm, not much to say. I got in, got the photos of the weapons and slaves and other dangerous illegal things when someone came in.” Sabo starts explaining, “They would have found me but one of the slaves set off a crate of gunpowder powder and explosives. It provided enough of distraction and disturbance that we pulled everything useful along with rescuing the slaves before the ship sank.”

“Hmm…”

Sabo’s mind went back to that one slave. That way he noticed Sabo was there before anyone else… that way he had simply just stared at him before almost being caught… that grin right as he lite the powder… it seemed familiar somehow.

“The slave who set off the explosion.” Dragon asks, rustling through his papers, “Was it this one?”

Dragon held up one of the photos his snail had taken. Surprised at how clear and focused the image was on the young Slave’s scarred and dirty face. It was taken while he was being stared at… right before the explosion.

“Yeah that’s him.”

“What happened after that?”

“That blast threw him through the ship and into the ocean.” Sabo straightens at the seriousness on Dragon’s face. “I informed Hack immediately but when he searched the water he couldn’t find them. We didn’t have time to search the whole sea for him so we saved who and what we could and…”

The rest was left unsaid.

“I see…”

Sabo sat there, waiting for the next question… only for Dragon to let out a big sign of relief, sinking into his desk. The moment of vulnerability startled him so he, for a moment, thought Dragon had just keeled over.

“Dragon!”

“I’m alright.”

“If I may ask… sir.” Sabo hesitated, “What’s so special about this slave? We couldn’t save him…”

“Hmm…”

Dragon regained his air of seriousness as he closed his eyes to think.

“Given your connection to him, I suppose it should be safe to tell you…” Dragon rubs his chin, “What I say doesn’t leave this room… Ever, but it will probably help in one of the two missions I have for you.”

“Yes sir!”

Sabo had no idea what he was talking about anymore.

“This… is Luffy.” Dragon held up the picture again, talking quieter, the name struck something with Sabo, “He… is my son.”

“Right, of course.” Sabo nodded along before it clicked, “What!”

Suddenly everything in the last few years made sense… Why Dragon had started focusing on ships and auctions rather than bigger targets.

“But…”

“Worry not, he is still alive.” Dragon answered him before he could say anything. “The members of my family are very tenacious and hard to kill. He was honestly probably just eaten and spat out by a passing Sea King, he’ll show up somewhere eventually.”

“You are way too calm about admitting that…”

Yet… it sounded right? Luffy getting eaten by things… Why does he know that…?

“What about the missions?” Sabo shakes off the growing headache. “You said there were two?”

“That’s right.” Dragon nodded, “Your main one will be to investigate the seas and islands around where you last saw Luffy, and look for him. If you find him you are to not let me know until after you bring him straight here.”

“Okay, and the second one?”

“I need you to break into Marineford and hand over a packet of information to one of my contacts.”

“Sounds reasonable enou- eh WHAT!”

“Is there a problem?”

“You’re basically sending me to give information to the marines!”

“Yes. He will have information in return. It's not anything confidential, but he deserves an update as well.”

“Who?”

“My father.”

“Right…” Sabo should just start expecting more information bombs at this point, “Will he be expecting me?”

“You and the information, yes.” Dragon tells him with a hint of a smirk, “You in particular? No.”

What did that mean? He’s going to need more medicine before he heads out… that’s when someone Dragon said came back to him.

“Wait, you said my connection.” Sabo points out, confused, “How am I connected to your son?”

“Hmm?” Dragon looked almost shocked like Sabo should have figured it out already. “He’s your brother.”

“Heh?”

“Not biologically, we are not related.” Dragon clears up upon seeing Sabo's reaction, “But when I first met you, you were crying about your brothers being stuck in the Terminal Fire. It was only later did I realize who those brothers were but by then you had already accepted not returning to your past… so I left it be.”

“You get to explain to Koala why I’m back in the Med-bay if my headache kills me.” Sabo mumbles, dropping his head onto Dragon’s desk. “I promise to not tell anyone what you told me.”

“I trust you to use that information wisely.” Dragon tells him, patting his head, “If you up for it, you’ll head out in three days, first the Marine HQ then search for Luffy.”

“Yes sir…”

Chapter Text

Ace let out a frustrated scream as he slammed his fist into a tree, causing it to crash to the forest floor.

“Anger isn’t going to help you, Ace.”

“Shut up, Shitty Geezer!”

“I’m sorry I don’t have an update for you.”

“Then why the hell are you here instead of looking for him!”

“To check in on you, you’re my grandson as well.” Gramps tells him, “I haven’t given up hope and I don’t want to see you falling to despair. We’ll find him.”

“Well I’d rather have him back, not missing!”

“I understand. I have people helping.” Gramps explains looking up at the sky, “People who can look where I can’t. I just had a meeting with one, I’m expecting some information when I meet with the other. They have their own people looking for him as well.”

“Then why haven’t they found him yet.”

“There’s a chance he’s in a place that no one can touch.”

“And if he is there?”

“… Then we have to wait… and hope he gets moved…” Gramps didn’t seem too happy as he said that, “But right now, as long as his fruit doesn’t resurface then no news is good news.”

“I don’t like it.” Ace huffs, joining his grandfather by the fire. “I hope you know I’m not going to become a Marine.”

“I’ve given up on that the moment Luffy was taken…”

“Good. I’m leaving early to become a pirate.”

“All I ask is that you wait until I come back again before setting out.” 

“Why would I?” Ace huffs again, helping himself to his now cooked kill. “Clearly what you're doing isn’t working!”

“I know.” Ace felt a pang go through him at his grandpa’s sullen face, “But if we don’t do this carefully then a lot of innocent people could end up hurt and everyone involved right now would like to prevent that.”

Ace takes a deep breath, remembering Makino’s lessons about calming himself and passes a thing of meat over to the elder.

“I can’t promise you I’ll stay…” Ace grumbles out, digging his foot into the dirt, “But I’ll try, if I feel like the time is right… there will be no stopping me.”

“That’s alright with me.” Gramps gave him a half-hearted grin, “You make sure to give the world hell until we find him.”

“How many Marines do you have looking for him anyways?”

“Huh? Marines?” Gramps looked confused at his questions, “Technically speaking, just myself and Bogard.”

“What! Then no wonder you haven’t found him yet!” Ace’s anger flared at the news, “Who all is helping you if not Marines!”

“Oh well… a pirate crew and their connections.” His Shitty Gramps scratched his chin, “As well as Luffy’s father and his people… At this point I might go meet up with some old drinking pals of mine and see if they’d be willing to help if one of the others haven’t already asked them.”

“Huh!?”

“What?”

“What do you mean Luffy’s father?!” Ace demands, “He has a dad! Where has he been this whole time?”

“Well he’s my grandson isn’t he? That means he had to come from my son!” Garp laughs out, “Although now that I think about it, you were given to me and that blond one just appeared one day, so maybe I don’t need a son to have grandsons.”

“Gramps…”

“Ah right!” The old man refocused, “Anyways my son’s not in any real position to take care of Luffy, at least not in any way that would allow Luffy to do what he wants or that would be safe, so the brat handed Luffy over to me, kind of like what your mom did.”

“Oh…”

Ace had been ready to remark on how they have, or are, terrible fathers… but with that context… Ace kinda understood.

“That’s who I’m actually meeting with soon.” Gramps told him, picking his nose, “This is the first time he’s sending information directly to me so I’m assuming he’s found something…” Ace opened his mouth to ask something, “No, I don’t know if it’s good news or not, and no you can’t just come with me to the middle of HQ. Not unless you want to act like a perfect Marine cadet and put on the uniform.”

“Oh, nevermind then.”

“Hmmpt, can’t even humor an old man and at least put the uniform on?”

“Never.”

“You brat!” His Gramps’ fist met his head. “You would’ve been a great Marine if you just tried.”

“Fat chance!” Ace remarks back, dodging the next fist, “You know that was never going to happen!”

“An old man can dream can’t he!”

Ace went down after two more hits, but they didn’t hit as hard as usual. As the somber feeling settled itself between them.

“I’ll be leaving tonight.” Gramps told him, “Sengoku is getting annoyed at all my vacations.”

Ace laid where his grandpa knocked him down, staring at the star between the foliage, choosing to stay quiet.

Soon the only sounds were the crackle of the fire and the animals lurking in the forest. It was strangely peaceful… and that peace only made him feel bitter about this whole thing. Ace swears he’ll find the bastards that took Luffy and make him pay…

Luffy didn’t deserve what happened… or is happening to him, it should have been Ace…

“I don’t know how long I’ll be gone. It depends on the information I’m given…” Gramp looks into the fire, “But Ace, please be patient… and don’t blame yourself.”

“Whatever…” Ace rolls to his side, turning his back to Gramps as his emotions warred, “It was my fault… I broke my promise to Sabo…”

“You didn’t, Luffy made his own choice that day, and he chose you over himself.”

“What…” Ace’s voice caught on itself as he finally asks the question he doesn’t want the answer to, “What if he’s dead? I’m only living for Luffy right now… but if… If he’s gone… What should I do?”

Ace hated how small and broken his voice sounded to his own ears, he hated how weak he was being…

“Then you live for Luffy.” Ace felt his Gramps’s big hand on his back offering support, “Live your life the best you can for his sake, and hope that it will be enough…”

They stayed there for who knows how long. Long after the fire burnt out. Long after the uneaten meat cooled and was carried off by hungry animals. Long enough that Ace felt cold. Long enough that Ace fell asleep, his Grandfather never leaving his side as he silently cried into the grass.

Then he woke up alone to a quiet morning in his bed at Dadan’s. His ‘chores’ already all done and the hut empty.

“Tch.” Ace clicked his tongue taking in the scene, “Those bastards…”

He had some crocodiles to go hunt…

Chapter Text

“We have a problem.” Thatch came to him the day after they departed the island, “And I don’t think you’ve realized it yet.”

“What are you talking about ~yoi?”

“The Kid!”

Marco glanced at the kid who was barely visible from under Stefan as the two napped next to Pops’ chair where the old dog had rolled over onto him. Nothing looked off and Stefan wasn’t coming to him so Marco knew nothing was wrong physically.

“What’s wrong with the kid?”

“That!” Thatch exclaimed, causing Marco to raise a brow at him, “He needs a name, something to call him by! We can’t just keep calling him ‘kid’!”

“He’s not an animal.” Marco tells him, “We can’t just… name him.”

“But we have to call him something!” Thatch laments, “Even if it’s just temporary until he tells us his name, like a nickname or something.”

“Fine.” Marco agrees, a small smirk playing at his lips, “But you’ll need to find something he’ll respond to, you can just call him whatever you want.”

“Fine! As long as he has something other than just ‘kid’!”

“Have fun.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Thatch grumbles, “I’ll have to do it later, I need to go help with the end of lunch rush, bring him in after and he can have all the food and leftovers he wants. I’ll do it then.”

“I think you’re making a big deal about nothing.”

Marco rolls his eyes at his brother before making his way over to Pops, and incidentally, the kid.

Not a lot of people know that the kid is there yet, all current commanders, besides Haruta, knew of course but they were letting both the kid and the crew get to see each other naturally rather than telling them.

When asked, they would be given the answer, and then told to not let Haruta know if they can help it and to not spread the news the best they can.

It was working surprisingly well for now as most of the ones who have seen the kid have only seen him in the dining hall or the Medbay. Outside of that, the kid was sleeping next to Stefan most of the time.

“Any updates?” Pops asked, not so stealthy hiding his booze, “Thatch seemed pretty adamant over there.”

“The Kid’s doing better, Haruta is still in the dark last I checked, no betting pools yet but word is slowly working itself around.” Marco lists off, “And Thatch wants to name the kid but I told him he would need to find something he responds to not just slap a name on him.”

“Hmm…”

“I’ve been catching trying to pinch himself.” Marco adds his observations for the last few days, “I think he’s trying to determine if his freedom is real or not, not sure what we can do to convince him it’s real.”

“Has he taken to anyone other than Stefan?”

“Not really, he follows me around a bit, and Thatch when he’s hungry.” Marco answers, leaning against the railing, “But he mostly sticks to Stefan. I think he doesn’t trust us and that is something I’m also unsure of how to handle since it was probably pirates that sold him in the first place.”

“Hmm…”

“Still think contacting Red-hair is a bad idea?”

“Yes. His recent endeavors attract too much attention.” Pops explains, “If we try to make contact or meet with them while they’re this much of a hot topic it will put more focus on us without any real reason if it turns out there is no connection between him and that brat.”

“Which can potentially either stress the kid out unnecessarily or get him a bounty…” Marco concludes, “Which will make it near impossible for him to return home if he wanted to.”

“That’s right, the same with Garp outside the other reason.” Pop said, “I’ll have one of the flagships try to intercept him by the end of the month if there are no other leads.”

“Sounds good, it will give the kid more time to adjust." Marco accepted the plan, “Any ideas on how to get him to trust us more?”

“I do have one.” Pops gives him a grin, “But you hate doing it.”

“Really?” Marco knows where he’s going with this, “No.”

“Oh come on Marco, I’m sure he’ll have fun, and you get to show off a bit.”

“No.”

“What if you do it while scouting for the next island?” Pops suggests, “It should be only another day or a half a day away.”

“You call yourself a Captain, the next island is four days away!” Marco sighs out, “and… I’ll think about it… but no promises.”

“Fine by me, it was just a suggestion.”

There was a gruff rumble from Stefan, still rolled over onto the kid.

“You should let him breathe, Stefan.” Marco tells the beast, “You really shouldn’t be laying on him like that.”

“Any signs on what his Devil Fruit powers are?” Pops asks, “I would like to be prepared when I hear about any incidents.”

“Nope.” Marco tries freeing the Kid from under Stefan, “Nothing yet, it’s possible he doesn’t even know himself but he’s definitely eaten one. We will just need to prepare.”

Marco finally got the dog to roll back over, getting off the kid and repositioning himself by Pop’s feet. By now Marco knew lunch was ending so he had a kid to wake up.

“Hey Kid.” Marco gently prods the sleeping child with his foot, “Lunch time, time to get up.”

The kid shot awake. An unfortunate reaction caused by his time as a slave but an expected one. Marco let him get his bearing before offering to lead the kid to the Galley.

“…mmm…”

Marco paused when the Kid stopped following him after just a moment. He was staring at Stefan who hadn’t gotten up to follow, content to finish his nap. For a moment Marco thought he was going to have to say something as the kid just stared at the dog but before he could the kid turned back around.

That was kinda weird, Marco believed, but the Kid didn’t seem to have an issue with the separation as he led him further from the animal.

That was a good sign, he supposed.

“You feel like telling us your name yet?”

“…”

“I figured as much.” Marco says, “You’ll tell us when you're ready.”

“Ah, there you are!” Thatch says when they walked in, plates already dished for them, “Let me know when you want more all right… Bento!”

“I think you're wasting your time.” Marco says as the boy just tilted his head up to Marco, “Thatch here is going to call you different names because he thinks you need one.”

“I’m not just going to call him ‘Kid’ the whole time!” Thatch defends, “You want be to be called something more than kid right… Ezra?”

The kid gave no response as he started digging into the food.

“Awe come on, work with me… David?”

“Leave him alone Thatch.” Marco waves off his brother, “Maybe he doesn’t want a name.”

“No! I shall find something he likes!” Thatch plops down on the other side of the kid, “Right, Bart?”

“…”

Thatch starts listing more random names for the kid, all met with equal disinterest.

“I give him a week before he gives up.” Marco leans over and whispers to the kid, “What do you think?”

“I heard that you bastard!”

It was subtle, and Marco only noticed it because of how close he had leaned over… but the kid’s shoulder shook a bit as what seemed like a twitch of a smile crossed his face.

It wasn’t a smile, nor a laugh, not really… But still it was something.

Chapter Text

Sabo had decided this was the worst mission he’s ever been sent on.

The uniform was stuffy and restricting, the makeup covering his scar was irritating his eye, and his body was sore from mimicking the Marine-like posture for the last few days. Most of all, his headaches have only been aggravated due to interacting with some of the lesser Marines who think they’re above everyone for one reason or another.

Just thinking about them makes his hand twitch and he has resisted the urge to just go… crush their bones.

Where the hell was his contact? He really should have asked Dragon for more details about who his father was. All he knew was that he was a Marine, he’s high ranking, and he’s expecting him.

Of course he had a list of people he’s crossed off based on what he knows while also avoiding anyone who would be able to tell he’s just supposed to be here…

“Hey you, Newbie!” A snarky voice calls out, causing Sabo’s patience to thin more. “Come over here and handle these chores!”

“I can’t.” Sabo politely but tersely tells the Marine, “I’m running an errand at moment and I’m already late.”

“I don’t care, you’re a lower rank, you have to do what I say.” He was told as the Marine smugly looks down on him.

“Again, I have to refuse.”

“If you don’t, I’ll report you for insubordination!” The Marine, now angry, tells him, “It would be a shame if you were demoted, or even fired, wouldn’t it?”

“Not really…”

The smug Marine didn’t hear him, oblivious to their surroundings but Sabo grew tense as he spots Vice-Admiral Garp stalking down the halls, sending Sabo on high alert. That was one of the Marines he was desperately avoiding, and for good reason. The second the old man lays his eyes on Sabo he knows he’s been made.

Luckily for him the Vice-Admiral didn’t engage him, rather came to a stop right behind the other Marine, looking down at the two of them, giving Sabo a good stare down.

“So do as I order you-“

“What’s going on here?” The Vice-Admiral demands, interrupting the lesser Marine, “Why are you recruits blocking the halls?”

“Oh nothing, sir!” The now nervous marine tried placating, “We are just splitting up chores, ya know.”

“No, I don’t know.” Garp told him, arms crossed, “I’m pretty sure I was meeting this officer in my office, it’s only fortunate that I was running late myself so I wasn’t expecting him just yet.”

“O-oh, I didn’t know he was doing an errand for you, sir!”

“Why would it matter?” The old man stated, “Go do your assigned chores and don’t let me catch you trying to pass them off again, that is not how a Marine is supposed to act!”

“Yes, Sir! Sorry, Sir!”

The Marine scrambled off, presumably well aware of the man’s reputation. Sabo himself tried to sneak away but the Vice-Admiral’s large hand grabbed his shoulder, stopping him from leaving.

“Don’t think I forgot about you, young man.” Garp glared down at him, “Let’s go have that ‘meeting’ now, shall we?”

“Yes, sir…”

He was escorted all the way to a private office, that hand never leaving his shoulder like the Vice-Admiral was scared he’s going to try to run.

To be fair it was an accurate assumption… because he will the second he gets an opening… but for now he’ll play along, maybe try to pull some important information from anything the Vice-Admiral might have laying around on his desk.

…

Or he’ll be arrested.

It’s fifty-fifty at this point, he’ll have to see, but as he enters the office it became clear he was going to have a hard time getting away even if he had a chance. The office was located near the very center of the base, he would need to potentially fight through even Marine in the headquarters if he wanted to leave…

The Vice-Admiral dug around his unfortunately clean desk for a moment, not bothering to watch Sabo fully but never taking his focus off him either as he stood awkwardly in the middle of the office

“Report, Recruit!”

“Uhh…” There’s no way… He has to know he’s a Rev… right? “Sir… I believe you have mistaken me for someone else…”

“I haven’t.” The Vice-Admiral voice was certain about it, “Now salute and give me the report!”

“What report, sir!” Sabo answers, pulling the perfect salute, trying his best to salvage this situation. “Sir?”

There was a flash, as a Cameko Snail takes a photo of him, the Vice-Admiral sitting there with a shit eating grin as he chuckles, printing out the photo, pinning into some journal.

“So you're the one he sent? Should have expected he’d never come himself.” Garp asks, all the tenseness he was giving off fading, leaving Sabo confused about what had happened, “I honestly never expected to see you again, Sabo.”

“Uh… I’m sorry? Sir?” Sabo tried to stay in character but having the Marine know his name through him off, “Do you know me?”

“Hmm?” The old man stared at him again, squinting his eyes at him before stalking up to him and grabbing his head and tilting it to look at his scarred side. “Head injury? Missing memories are ya? That explains a lot.”

“What?”

“Did my brat of a son not explain anything to you before he sent you here?”

“Who?”

“Dragon, of course.” Garp says, dropping back into his chair, “I figure he’d at least tell you who to look for, no wonder the report was late. I’m going to give him a good training session the next time I see him.”

“Heh!?”

“Not only that, he didn’t even tell me that my own grandson was still alive!” The rant carries on, “I swear, wait till I tell Makino and Dadan, they’ll be so happy to hear you're alive, not to mention your brother!”

“Uh…”

Sabo was a bit conflicted… the last thing he remembered was the intense feeling of not returning to his family… but all the names he listed off didn’t fill him with the same sense of rejection as before… and it was… confusing…

“Wait…”

“So you became a revolutionary, can’t say I’m too surprised given what your parents did and of course the incident we thought killed you. Although not much better than a pirate, I can understand…”

“Wait…” Sabo tries to catch you “You’re Dragon’s dad… Dragon’s your son… How!?”

“Well you see-“

“No! Not what I meant.”

Garp just laughs at him. Crazy old man if he wasn't his boss's father or the Hero of the Navy, Sabo would probably try to hit him.

“Right, let’s get to business.” Garp got serious, pulling out a file from his desk, “Here’s all the reports to hand over, let me see what my no good son sent me.”

Sabo hands over the information, already tired from all the surprises in the last few days… maybe if his memories do return he’ll at least have some knowledge on what to expect.

“You called me your grandson…” Sabo noted, flipping through the information to see if it’s worth it, “Why?”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Garp states casually, frowning at his own new information, “Even if my son hadn’t taken you in, my grandsons did. You all called yourselves brothers, acted like it too, and if they saw you as family then you are family.”

“Did I really mean that much to Luffy that you would claim me as your own?”

“Of course! And not just Luffy but Ace too, that boy was the happiest I’d ever seen him when you and Luffy were around.” Garp tells him, comparing something on a map, “Losing both of you in one way or another has been really hard on him, he’ll be so happy you're alive… after he tries to kill you.”

“Ace?”

“Yeah, your other brother. The three of you were real menaces to everyone you came across, got you in more trouble then it was worth but you all had each other's back.”

Garp pulls something out of what seemed to be his wallet and slides it over to him. It was a picture taken in front of what seems to be… a bandit hideout? Three kids were standing in front of a dead giant animal, smiles and smirks decorating their faces. Sabo sees himself clearly, tooth missing and ruffed up but smiling excitedly. The other two clearly looked like each other, Luffy he recognized barely thanks to that stupid grin and scar on his face, the other must be Ace. The smirk and freckles sent a sense of familiarity through him.

“Makino sent me this.” Garp explains, “You can go ahead and keep it if you want, I can get another one from her the next time I visit.”

Sabo stares at the photo a bit longer before sliding into his pocket.

“Hmm…”

“What’s wrong?”

“Dragon says you're going to be searching for Luffy around where he was last seen, correct?”

“Uhh… Yes sir.” Sabo was surprised that Dragon included that, “Why?”

“It’s very close to Newgate’s territory.” Garp answers referencing the map again. “I would be careful when you are on any of his islands, he’s fair but he will protect what he has without question if he sees you as a problem.”

“Newgate?”

“Whitebeard.”

“Right…” Sabo says, not surprised the old man would call an Emperor by his actual name, “By the way, any other family I should know about? You’re not going to tell me there’s another brother who’s secretly Gold Roger’s son or something right?”

“Of course not!” Garp bursts out laughing like it’s the funniest damn thing, “Who do you think Ace is? 

“HUH!?”

“Oh right, don’t tell anyone that!”

“What the hell is this family!?”

“One you’re apart twice over now.” Garp stands, patting his shoulder, “By the way, when you see Dragon again give him a message for me!”

“… What is it…?”

The sense of dread Sabo had gotten from was justified as Garp’s fist slammed into his head, knocking him to the ground, leaving a bump.

“Tell that ungrateful brat to come and see me for once!” Garp cheerfully tells him, “An old man wants to see his own kid every once in a while!”

“Y-yes, sir…”

His grandfather was crazy… and now his head was killing him worse than before…

“Now get out of here brat!.” Garp dismissed him, “I’m sure you have better things to do. I’ll give you Bogard’s contact in case you need to meet up!”

“O-okay…?”

Chapter Text

Marco quietly snuck around the halls, heading to the Kid’s room. It was dark out and most everyone was asleep but this would be the only time he’s willing to do this.

Knocking softly, as to not scare the boy, Marco pushed his way into the room, not that it would matter, the kid could sleep through cannon fire if he wanted to.

“Hey, Kid.” Marco crouched to prod at the sleeping form, “Get up, I wanna show you something.”

The kid rubbed his eye as he and Stefan woke up, the old beast stretching as he stood.

“Follow me.”

Marco watched as something in the boy closed off a bit but he still followed along, mainly because Stefan was following and the boy trusted Stefan the most.

He watched him from the corner of his eye. Despite what he’s been through, the Kid seemed to adapt to his surroundings pretty well, yet for some reason there was something that was still hindering him from fully enjoying his freedom, almost like the Kid can’t believe he’s free… and Marco was going to help with that right now.

Or accidentally scare him, could go either way.

The deck was quiet and empty, covered in the shadows of the night. Pops was in his seat, pretending to be asleep, no doubt wanting to watch this himself while Izou and Curiel were on watch.

“Now Kid, I want you to know something.” Marco crouched down to be close to his height, “First, I swear on my life, my brothers’ lives, Stefan’s life, and even Pop’s life, I am going to do you no intentional harm.”

That seemed to get the kid to relax a bit since dragging him out here but he still clung to Stefan like Marco was going to throw him overboard or something.

“Second, I don’t normally do this, it’s tiring, especially when you have as many brothers as I have trying to take advantage of it. So I will only do this once outside of special circumstances, understand?”

The kid tilts his head, which was the best Marco could hope for.

“Alright now, climb onto my back and hold on tight.” Marco turns away, offering his back to the Kid while pointing a thumb to it. Small arms hesitantly wrapped around his neck and Marco hooks his arms under the boy’s legs to help hike him up further in a more secure spot. “Ready?”

Arms tightening was the only answer he got as he walked toward the railing of the ship, casually jumping up and balancing on it.

“And finally.” Marco started as he tilts them off the railing, “Apologies if this scares you!”

To his credit, the kid doesn’t make a sound as they fall before Marco twists, letting his limbs transform into their Zoan equivalent allowing him to gain altitude.

“Sometimes, in this world, you get to see some pretty unbelievable things.” Marco starts talking after a moment, letting the kid adjust to what was happening, “Good things, bad things, and things we don’t even fully understand like Devil Fruits… but Unbelievable none the less.”

…

“I know you are having a hard time believing it.” Marco talks to him as he soars over the water, "That it might just be a dream, that what you are seeing might not be real. That doubt in the back of your head that… it’s not what it seems.”

The Kid’s arms twitched around his neck as he said that, guess Marco hit the nail on the head.

“It's great at first, believing it’s a dream, but I know that doubt will always leave you guessing.” Marco continues, climbing higher and further away from the ship, “And I don’t know how to help you believe it… but you are free from your chains.”

“It will be tough, there will be moments where those doubts rear their heads.” Marco tells him, “But as long as you are with us, we will do everything in our power to help you as long as you want it. You just need to tell us when and what you need and we will be there to remind you that you’re free until you are ready to believe it yourself.”

Dawn broke past the horizon, the sun lighting everything before them in a dazzling array of lights and shadows.

“You are safe with us, if you choose to stay, Pops will happily let you join the crew.” Marco continues, “Or if we stop at an island you want to stay at, that you feel safe at, you’re more than welcome to stay there as well. Or when you are ready to tell us where home is for you, we will find a way to return you if that’s your wish. The choice is your, you are free to do what you want now.”

Marco felt the Kid’s arms relax as he sits up on his back, presumably taking in everything before him. Marco turns his head to see his face… but all he got was a bright shit eating grin before the kid just… lets go completely, dropping from Marco back like a rock.

“What the hell!” He fully transforms, diving after him, catching him as gently as he could with his talons. “What were you thinking!?”

Looking at the kid he was met with that same full-teeth grin as the kid swings himself in his grasp, his body shaking as Marco’s ears are graced with a laugh.

“You did that for fun!?” Marco asks incredulously and he checks him over, this was a fast turn around… did his words really help that much? “You wanna do it again?”

The kid gave him a nod and grin, clearly enjoying himself and Marco set himself to climbing altitude again, filling backwards to fling the kid up a bit higher before starting his descent again as Marco chased him.

He allowed the kid to do it a few more times since it was the first time he’s smiled before catching him on his back and adjusting course back to the ship.

Marco lands on the ship, the Kid’s arms still wrapped around him, deactivating his powers.

“Well someone looks much happier.” Izou comments, noting the big grin, “Look like you two were having fun.”

“Pops was right, this did help him a lot.” Marco tries to de-tangle the Kid from him, “As much as I hate giving rides, I’ll admit this was a good idea.”

“What are you all doing out here?” Thatch asks through his yawn as he comes into deck, “It’s too early for this many of you to be awake… give me some time to start breakfast…”

“Thatch, you’re not on breakfast this morning, you did your check last night since it’s your off day.”

…

“Ah! I could have slept in!?” Thatch realized with self-mortification, “Wait-“

Thatch just now realized the kid was clinging to Marco with a big smile.

“Well lookie there.” Thatch gives them a smile of his own in understanding, “Not only do you seem to have a little monkey clinging to you, but he’s smiling! What says you, Willis? Having fun this morning?”

The Kid’s smile at that Thatch as Marco finally pulls him away and sets him down. The kid certainly has a grip to him… but looking at the smile on the his face, the way he seems to light up like the sun itself gives him an idea.

“How about it, Sunny?” Marco asks the boy, "Want to go terrorize the morning cooks?”

“Mmmp!”

“Please don’t scare them too much!” Thatch begs as they walk away, “Or else they will never want to work…”

“No promises!”

Chapter Text

Ace growled in frustration as he stood over the unconscious thugs from the dump…

It did little to soothe his anger as he stomps away from them.

Nothing was a challenge any more, nothing can hurt him enough to make him stronger… he’s reached the limits he can grow strong here…

It was time to leave… Waiting for Gramps be damned…

“Welcome back.” Magra greets him, “You’re back early.”

“No one left to fight.” Ace responds shortly, heading to his room, “I’ll go catch something for dinner later.”

“Alright…”

Ace warred with himself as he lays down to take a nap. He wants to leave but he also wants to wait for Gramps… If what he said was true and that Luffy’s dad found something.. then maybe… but the helplessness Ace is feeling, the guilt of not being strong enough to stop Luffy from being taken… It was eating at him and he wanted to leave, to help… To do something other than wait. He wants to look for Luffy…

Rolling over he grabbed Luffy’s hat… the only thing left behind like it was a piece of trash.

Makino helped him repair it and clean it up after he had found it… It had been stomped on and the neck string had been sliced, which presumably is what caused it to be separated from his brother in the first place…

Ace fights with himself often on whether or not he should bring it with him when he leaves… It’s not his to take on a journey… but if he finds Luffy then it would be back where it belongs…

But if Gramps finds Luffy… and brings him back and the hat’s not here… Luffy would probably be upset…

On the other hand… if Luffy isn’t… then Ace would uphold the promise his brother made and return the hat to Shanks for him… it would be the least he can do… but he would need the hat with him…

…

…

Damn it! There's no way he’s going to be able to sleep now, Ace thinks before getting back up and kicking a crate in frustration as he hangs Luffy’s hat around his own neck.

“I’m going hunt-“ Ace was about to announce when he noticed that the hut was practically void of people besides himself and Dadan. “Where’d everyone go?”

“Hmm?” Dadan sounds as she turned to him, “They were being too lazy for my liking today so I sent them on jobs, they’ll be back in time for dinner.”

“Okay…?” Dadan rarely sends her bandits to do things, typically only when they need supplies the forest can’t provide and they raid the docking ships in Pirate’s Bay or High town if they plan it out. “I’m going hunting… any requests?”

“I don’t care.” The grumpy bandit turns away from him after staring at him a moment too long, “Grab whatever you want today.”

Weird… Ace gets the feeling he’s missing something but he shakes it off, not really in the mood to care himself.

“Whatever…”

Ace leaves, taking his path to the tree house. The structure is still surprising sturdy and sound above him as he leans again the tree it was built upon.

…

He’s been avoiding this place but if he’s leaving maybe it was time to make some peace with his feelings… something he’s never been good at without Luffy or Sabo there to tell him he’s being stupid.

The old scoreboard sits in front of him… next to that stupid rock, the score forever sitting at forty-nine to fifty-one on his and Sabo’s spars… and ninety-nine to one on his and Luffy’s… the brat was so happy when he landed a punch hard enough to knock him down that Ace couldn’t help but allow Luffy to count it as a win…

It was his only win before he was taken…

…

Ace allows time to pass in the calmness of the area, watching the wind shake the leaves of the trees while he worked out his mind…

Not that it was much help really…

Rubbing the back of head he moves on… There was nothing but memories here and they won’t help him right now.

Heading deeper into the jungle Ace aims for the cliff overlooking the sea… and sits down.

He’ll be on those waters soon enough… and hopefully he’ll be able to track down his brother. Nothing will stop him until he does…

It’s a promise he makes to himself, marking the third promise he’s made here… hopefully this will be one he won’t break. He couldn’t protect and look out for Luffy like he promised Sabo after reading the letter… and he has regrets, which is something he promised to never have with Luffy… so hopefully this one… this promise will work out, for his own sake.

The letter and the hat’s presence weigh heavy on him as he watches the gulls flying around.

It wasn’t that long… or didn’t feel that long before the sun started to set, making Ace stand and stretch to go hunt like he planned to.

Taking his time on his way back as he tracks down a Danpa, taking it down and killing it with no issue to drag back with him.

Pochi announces his return with barks as he sets his kill down for the others to process for dinner.

“Oh Ace!” Dogra says coming outside, “Perfect timing, come in!”

“Huh? What’s going on…” Ace’s words trail off upon seeing the rarely set table decked out in all kinds of meals as the Bandits sit around it, waiting for him. Dadan and Makino at the head of the table giving him a sad but knowing look. “What’s all this?”

“Your send off dinner.” Dadan bluntly tells him, “Don’t think we don’t know you planned on leaving… and I have feeling that we will wake up in the morning to you gone… so we helped Makino plan your send off.”

Looking away a bit embarrassed, Ace wouldn’t admit they were probably right…

“I don’t have a boat…”

“We got that taken care of as well.” Makino tells him gently, “We’ve just been waiting for you to decide when to leave, it’s at the Eastern cliffs, ready with supplies when you are.”

“But… why?”

“We understand, Ace.” Dogra answers, “We all care for Luffy, we all want to help him and hate that we can’t do anything… But you can!”

“That’s why we’re helping you!” Magra adds, “And because we care about you as well!”

“Especially the Boss!” Another bandit adds cheerfully, “Even if she won’t admit it!”

“Oi!” Dadan hit them, “Shut up!”

Ace couldn’t help it as the feeling of gratitude overwhelms him as he fights off the urge to shed tears.

“Come on! Let’s enjoy!”

The Danpa was brought in and prepared as extra food while they all dug in, Ace allowing himself to enjoy himself for once since everyone put in such an effort for him.

“Why today?” Ace asks, swallowing a thing of meat, “I haven’t technically decided to leave yet but why did you think I would today?”

“Huh!?” Dadan questions him, pointing at the calendar, “Did you forget what day it is?”

Squinting his eyes so he didn’t have to get up, Ace checked the day… March 19th…

“Oh…”

This time tears did burn his eyes… Sabo’s birthday is tomorrow…

“Since that brat couldn’t set sail for himself we figured you were waiting for his birthday since you turned sixteen already.” Dadan explains, “That or Luffy’s birthday but since you seem to be done waiting and running out of patience… We figured we’d help you decide.”

“I…” Ace didn’t know what to say… “What about Gramps?”

“You let us worry about Garp, brat.” Dadan jabs a finger at him, “Plus it’s not like you won’t see him again, he’ll chase you across the sea regardless of what you do.”

“Yeah you're right…”

“We have gifts!” Magra tells him, “To send you off with!”

Several packages were dropped in front of him, ranging in sizes.

“Well go on! Open them!”

Ace grabbed one at random, feeling it was pretty light as he tears the paper. It was a bag, at first he thought it was a watermelon. Small but spacious.

The next held a knife, useful for a lot of things even if he doesn’t fight with one.

The smallest one held a familiar beaded necklace. Ace glances at Dadan with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t give me that look.” The turns away from him, “It’s so you don’t forget us while on the high sea! Plus it might help Luffy if he sees something familiar!”

“You’re also the closest thing she has to kids.” Dogra translated, “So she wanted to give you something special.”

“Shut up!”

Ace felt touched as he dropped the beads around his neck, the cool beads sat nicely on his collar, not long enough to be in the way but loose enough to not feel like it’s going to choke him.

“Thank you.”

“Whatever…”

“What the hell is this!” Ace gasps as he opens the last package and pulls out an orange abomination, “And why are there matching pieces!"

“Those are from me!” Makino explains with a smile. “I figured Sabo had a hat, and so does Luffy… So you need one as well!”

“It’s horrible!” Ace says, dropping it onto his head excitedly “I love it!”

“I figured you would!”

The matching pieces were a belt with his first initial on the buckle and a new elbow brace. The hat was a cowboy style with more red beads and two smiley emblems, one smiling and one frowning. Oh man Sabo would have words with him if he ever saw him wearing this… Luffy wouldn’t care…

It made him sad again but was nice, now he’ll have something to show off to Luffy when he finds him…

Ace allowed the bandits to party, he agreed, it’s time to leave and he’ll be setting out in the morning with their support.

And morning came, a bit too quickly yet not fast enough as they loaded the ship they got him with all the supplies.

“Take care of yourselves!” Ace calls back, waving his goodbyes, “Alright!”

“You just help find your brother, and make sure he’s safe for us!” Dadan calls back, “Don’t forget what we taught you!”

“You didn’t teach me shit!”

Setting off was the rose above the horizon, marking the dawn of a new day and Ace’s start as a pirate.

Just like his brothers, he left earlier than planned, but like his brothers it was for the sake of one another.

“Right!” Ace hyped himself up as he stared at his ship arms crossed, thinking, “… How do I sail?”

“What do you mean he’s left already!”

“Sorry Garp.” Makino apologized, sliding over the request items, “You just missed him too, we weren’t expecting you back this quickly.”

“Don’t worry about it.” The old man sighs out, “The fact he’s waited this long in the first place was nothing short of a miracle, but he couldn’t have waited one more week?”

“You seem rather adamant about that today.” Makino peers at him, “Do you have news?”

“For once I do.” Garp admits, pulling out something, “Some good news, not so good news, and surprisingly great news.”

“Oh!”

“Now… Don’t get your hopes up just yet, but Luffy was spotted by one of my contacts.”

“That’s great! He’s alive!”

“Yes, however they weren’t able to retrieve him, he’s still out there.”

“But…”

“He’s not with the people who had him, he’s free… just lost.” Garp explains calmly, “Little brat blew up the boat he was on from what I heard, there are people checking the area in hopes of finding him.”

“Oh thank goodness…” Makino sighs out, almost crying, “That sounds like a Luffy thing to do, I’ll make sure to update Dadan with the news as well.”

“Oh and this is who’s searching for him, I trust you’ll approve.” Grap slides over a photo, “Gave me quite the shock when I saw him.”

“Is that?”

“Yep.”

“Oh goodness…” This time Makino did start crying, sinking to her knees, “And Ace doesn’t know! We shouldn’t have pushed him to leave early…”

“It’s alright, It will give the brat time to get his head on straight.” Garps tells her, “Both of them.”

“I have to tell Dadan! She’ll be so happy!” Makino gathers herself, “Can I have this?”

“Go right ahead!” Garp laughs out loud, “I made copies!”

“You’ll tell him when you see him right?”

“Of course! Unless those two run into each other.” Garp laughs again, “Then we might just see it in the news!”

Chapter Text

The Moby Dock pulled to port of the next island slowly, a lot of the crew already on deck ready to make landfall once docked.

This island was known for entertainment and good food so most of the ship's inhabitants were disembarking for the day and half it takes the Log Pose to set. The Moby 3 was also docked here, waiting for them to do a personal change. Hurata was actually quite upset that they were selected, knowing full well it was to help prevent it from discovering their ‘not so secret secret’ too soon. They and Curiel were swapping with Rakuyo and Namur.

“Do you want to come with us?” Marco asks Sunny, who was enjoying the all the uneaten breakfast from the morning’s meal. “Might be fun.”

Sunny smiled up at him and nodded excitedly.

“Just be careful if you get lost, head back to the ship if you have to, alright?”

“Wow, he’s had a great turn around.” Thatch pops his head out of the service window when the kid ran off, presumably to go bother Stefan like always, “What did you do to make him so… lively?”

“Nothing much ~yoi.” Marco deflects, grabbing all the empty plates, “Just showed him something to show he was truly free.”

“He’s still not talking though, right?”

“No, but he’s making sounds, which is something.”

“Huh… must be a mental block… what do you think the trigger is?”

“Who knows…”

“Marco, we got a problem!” Curiel bursts in, “Sunny’s somehow made it to shore! And no one is with him!”

“What!”

The follows his fellow Commander out and grabs the telescope from his and… Sure enough Sunny was running around on shore, his grin wider then ever as he ran from place to place.

“We’re still a good distance from the dock!” Marco was shocked while Thatch whistled, impressed, “How’d he get over there!”

“I don’t know…” Curiel admits confused, “One moment he’s running around Pops and Stefan and the next thing I know he’s over there!”

Their captain, in question, appeared to be grinning himself, a glean of entertainment in his old eyes… He must have seen what had happened… or thrown him… but he doubts Pops would do that… not to a civilian at least.

“Well, I guess I’ll go get him.” Marco sighs out, half transforming, “Thatch, I trust that you and Izou will handle the transfers well.”

“You got it!” Thatch gives him a thumbs up, “Go grab our little ball of sun and energy before he gets in trouble.”

However, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed.

For one, Sunny didn’t listen to him as he ran around, dodging Marco, but he was fast as well. Just as Marco goes to grab him the kid flips out of his way, falls off something, scales a wall with ease, or just plain changes direction randomly.

It wasn’t Observation Haki, not fully… but it was something and it was a pain as he once again fails to catch the boy.

“Sunny, please!” Marco begs as the kid dodges, pulling off a one handed flip. “Let’s go explore like normal people!”

Sunny just gives him a grin and keeps going… He must think it’s a game or something… 

As long as it doesn’t cause trouble Marco was fine with letting him get his energy out. Not like he really had anything planned for the day that isn’t already being taken care of.

“Hey punk!” And he spoke too soon… “Watch were you're going!”

Marco lands on the edge of a building as three thugs stand over Sunny, still in the crouch he landed in as he stares at the three men.

He was curious to see what he would do… it would be good to gauge how he handled confrontation and conflicts… Just in case they get into a fight later down the line.

Sunny started at the punk with a blank expression, waiting…

“You’re not even gonna say nothing?” The head Punk angry yelled, “Think you’re better than us or something? We’ll show you?”

Crap! Marco’s curiosity clouded his judgment as one of the men pulls a gun out, not hesitating to aim it at the kid, while the other two brandished swords. Marco jumps down to de-escalate the situation, watching as a grin stretched across Sunny’s mouth followed by a gun shot just as Marco got to the ground.

In the next moment Marco had to process what happened as Sunny, still crouched, was laughing at the three beaten thugs, one with a gunshot wound.

The scene replayed in Marco head. The gun went off and Sunny just smirked wider. He ducked under the first swing of a blade and jumped over the other before grabbing both of their heads and slamming them together with the gun-wielding punk, knocking all three out in one go before landing back in his crouch, turning to Marco with his closed eye grin.

“Well… that’s something…” Marco dumbly notes, eyes scanning the boy but seeing nothing wrong, “You can fight?”

Sunny gave him another grin and nodded… Before running off again and this time Marco let him.

He stares at the pile of men, impressed. While not impressive compared to Pirates or even Marines, especially New World pirates. These were New World citizens, if you compare them to citizens of any of the Blues, or even Paradise, they would be considered strong but this kid just took them out without breaking a sweat.

He crouched down to check the bullet wound on the guy. It was curious… he’s pretty sure Sunny was the one shot so why was…

Oh shit! Sunny got shot!

“Wait!” March threw some bandages at the guys and took off after the kid, “Get back here!”

Half-way through following Sunny, Marco decides he must have imagined it, and the wound was from another fight or something, or the bullet had missed and somehow ricocheted back. There was no blood trail or the like and Sunny himself bounced around like a child in a candy shop, stopping every so often to look at something that caught his attention. His blue shirt was spotless for the most part as well, no signs of any bleeding.

He just… looked like a happy kid.

Which was better than what they were asking for when they found him almost a month ago… or has it been two months already? This was the first island that they’ve actually docked at instead of sending the much smaller supply ship to grab necessities they ran out of as they passed by.

“Gotcha!” Marco says, catching him by the arms with his talons mid jump and bringing him to the ground, “Can you please just wait a moment to make sure you’re okay?”

And thankfully he was, there was only a small tear in his shirt and no injury so he must have gotten it from all the running around. They dodged a bullet… quite literally it seems.

“The ship should be docked by now.” Marco tells him, “Wanna head back and meet up with them?”

All he got before Sunny took off exploring again was another grin and a shake of the head.

Letting out a tired sigh, Marco resigned himself to simply tracking him with Observations Haki and went about finding his own thing to do. The kid’s proven to be very capable.

…

But since he was… then that begs the question… How’d he get caught and sold in the first place?

Chapter Text

Thatch was glad that the Kid, Sunny, was feeling much better and recovering well but… his poor food stores. At this rate they will be hunting Sea Kings and hunting at uninhabited islands to support his appetite.

However, thanks to Sunny, Thatch has never had such a low cost to waste ratio before because the kid will literally eat everything, even if it doesn’t taste that good or if it was going bad. His leftovers fridge has never been cleaner.

Thatch has also learned that ‘meat’ was more or less the Kid’s favorite thing, and that was anything with meat or just plain meat itself. It didn't matter what animal the meat came from either.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Thatch asks Marco as some of them prepared for hunting on an island they stopped by, “Aren’t you worried he’s going to get hurt? This island is known for having giant violent animals that fight and kill for fun.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.” Marco tells him, seemingly knowing something he doesn’t, “I’ll be keeping an eye on him and the rest of you.”

“If you’re sure…” Thatch relents, “Are you at least going to give him a weapon or something?”

“I could ~yoi.” Marco tells him, flaring his arms into his wings, ready to take off, “But he’s already gone.”

“What the-“ Thatch swears Sunny was right next to him, but no, he was already disappearing into the undergrowth, leaving behind only rustling leaves. “Damn, he's fast.”

“And he can fight.”

“What!?” Thatch snaps his head to Marco, “When did you learn that?! How did you learn that?!”

“Last week, on the last island. He ran into some thugs, I thought he got shot for a moment.”

“And you didn’t step it?!” Thatch grabs the bird man before he could fly off to shake him, “What if he was in a fighting pit or something?”

“Calm down, I was going to step in but he beat me to it. Literally.” Marco frees himself, “Had them all down before I could help. Plus I checked him over afterwards, no injuries or anything, it seemed like he was having fun.”

“Fine! But I’m still not happy about learning this.”

“And you guys call me the mother hen…”

“Is that why you’re so calm with him running off now?”

“Partially.” Marco admits, choosing to walk with Thatch as they hop ashore, “I’m also gauging to see what settings he feels at home in, might help narrow down his home island once we get a lead.”

“Oh yeah, did Namur’s contact with the Revs know anything?”

“No, his contact is away at the moment, they will be informed and if the contact chooses to, will call Namur back.”

“Darn.”

“Apparently he just missed them too.”

“Well, more time with Sunny then!” Thatch excitedly says before freezing, “What the hell!”

Before them was a giant boar, not dead but unconscious, evidence of a short lived fight.

“Did Sunny do this?”

“Yep!”

“You knew he was fighting one of the animals!” Thatch starts shaking him again, “There’s a reason only select crew members are allowed to hunt here unless they’re in a group!”

“I was keeping an eye on him with Haki.” Marco knocks his hands away again, “He’s taken out several creatures already and is near the middle of the island now.”

“Marco!” Thatch stresses out, “That’s where the strongest beast lives!”

“I know.”

“Then why aren’t we hurrying?”

“You’ll see.”

And see he did.

Sunny left a trail of unconscious animals. Signs of fighting all around each area, some taken out in packs… It was terrifyingly impressive.

“Oh?”

“What is it?”

“He found the boss of the island ~yoi”

“Marco! Even some of the commanders have issues with that one!”

“He’ll be fine.”

“No he won’t!”

Thatch runs forward leaving Marco behind, swords ready. His own Haki picks up the fight as he grows closer and closer. 

There was a bellowing snort and thumping stomps that shook the ground as Thatch burst into the clearing just in time to see a ruffed up Sunny and the boss of the island charge at each other, the grin never leaving the Kid’s face.

Sunny dodges the horn of the giant green Rhino looking creature and grabs onto it… only to turn around and drag the beast over his shield, slamming straight into the ground with some effort.

“What…” Thatch couldn’t believe it as the ground shook from the impact, “the hell?!”

“I told ya.” Marco perches on a tree branch above him while they watch Sunny raised his arms up in victory on top of the Rhino. “He’s strong, freakishly strong for a kid.”

“But… How!?”

“Something we will just need to discover in time, or accept we’ll never figure out.”

“Nope, I’m calling it, he was in a fighting pit.”

“Hey Sunny!” Marco beckon him over, “Did have fun?”

Sunny gave him a nod.

“Did you fight often before we found you?”

Another nod.

“Did you fight for the people before us?”

A head tilt before a head shake no.

“See, he’s fine.” Marco tells him, “His fighting was before his time in chains. Which, honestly, just makes me have more questions than answers.”

“Think he’s from the New World?”

“At the very least somewhere in the Grandline in general.” Marco tells him, “Can’t see him coming from any of the Blues at this point unless he was trained or something.”

Sunny sat there watching them converse while something warm bared down on them.

“Ah… crap…”

The Rhino was already awake again, snorting and huffing above them as it stared down at them. It opens its mouth, as if to try and take a chomp out of one of them… Only to lick Sunny, covering him in drool and making him give a quiet laugh.

...

...

“Marco… what am I witnessing?”

“I believe Sunny has made a friend.”

“With… the Boss of the Island?”

“It would appear so.”

The Rhino did nothing as Sunny started climbing all over it, treating it like some kind of playground as opposed to the dangerous wild animals it was. In fact, it seemed almost pleased that Sunny was having a fun time

“I… you know what.” Thatch turns around, not putting his sword away, “This is a later Thatch’s problem, I still have food stores to fill.”

“I’ll make sure he’s alright.”

“You better!”

Thatch stomps off, taking down the first giant animal, a bulk of some kind, and signals the butcher team to come and take care of it.

He was still very much worried about Sunny, but he trusts Marco and so he tried not to worry as he hunts and gathers.

Upon returning to the ship he was greeted with piles and plies of fresh fruits and vegetables along with some more giant dead animals and the giant Rhino with Sunny half way in its mouth. The food was being taken care of by other, rightfully wary crew but Thatch had words for a certain first mate.

“Marco!” Thatch stomps up to them, “Why are you letting Sunny be eaten?”

“He’s fine.”

“Don’t look like it!”

“It’s perfectly safe, Sunny’s friends with it.” Marco placates, “The only thing he’s in danger of right now is another bath with Izou.”

Just then the Rhino jerks its head up, sending Sunny flying into the air. Thatch’s heart jumps up along with him as he watches Sunny reach a height that would be considered deadly.

“Marco!”

“He’s fine.”

“He’s falling!”

“I got him.”

And Marco did in fact catch the Kid… barley… Sunny just looked like he was having the time of his life which… helped ease his concern along with several others…

Man this kid was a menace… Which cause him to grin because he was so roping him into some pranks soon.

But for now he was fine letting Sunny have fun with… his new friend as long as he was safe.

Now… to check over the fruit and meat and plan some meals around it.

Chapter Text

Sabo let out a deep exhausted breath as he awoke. Ever since leaving Marineford his headaches have grown worse, especially after his encounter with Garp and learning about his family… Not his birth family but rather one he had found for himself.

One he didn’t remember…

Staring at the photo he was given did little to ease his turmoil or his head ache. The head ache, he’s now concluded, was caused by his lost memories threatening their return and honestly… He’s not sure he wants them back…

He doubts it will change him much. Sabo understands that who is now is who he is, there is no going back to the ‘old him’ but some part of him is… curious… to say the least. 

Especially since one of his ‘brothers’ was the son of his boss… The very same son that he was now tracking down across the seas.

Wait…

If this Luffy was Dragon’s son… and Sabo’s brother… What does that make him and Dragon?

Well… Sabo does guess that Dragon is the closest thing to a father he’s had now that he thinks about it… Not sure how he feels about that.

Not sure how Dragon would think about it either… but given how the rest of his family, from his understanding, he’d probably just go along with it.

“You up!” Koala acknowledges as he steps onto deck, still holding his head, “How are you feeling?”

It was obvious that both her and Hack were worried for him, seeing as they let him sleep in judging by the sun’s position.

“Like I lost a fight with a Vice-Admiral."

“Funny.” Koala dead panned at him, “Are you sure you are okay to be doing missions?”

“I’ll be fine.” Sabo placates her, “I think I’m the only one able to run this mission anyways, given the nature of it.”

“Are you finally going to tell us about the mission?” Hack asks, coming over to join them, “Or are you still waiting for something?”

“No, I’ll tell you.” Sabo says, half leaning half sitting on a nearby barrel, “It’s just… complicated.”

“How so?” Koala prompts curiously, “Does it have something to do with your headaches?”

“Probably.” Sabo admits, pulling out the missive folder, “Hack, this will probably make you happy but… this is our goal.”

Sabo flips it over to them, showing the picture of Luffy he had accidentally taken last mission.

“Is that…?”

“Yes, the Slave that we lost in the last mission.” Sabo confirms as Hack takes in the picture, “He’s a high priority target for rescue, according to my sources he's most likely still alive and we need to find him.”

“So we don’t have any actual confirmation he’s alive?” Koala notes a bit annoyed, “What are the other details?”

“We are to search around his last known location along with any of the surrounding islands for him.”

“Why is he a High Priority?” Hack asks, more interested in the case now, “That domination is usually restricted to captured members, informants, or Family Members.

…

Crap.

How was Sabo going to explain this in a way that makes sense with it revealing the information fully?

“He… a family member.” Sabo settles on vaguely with a pulse from his headache, “But as for whose, I’ve been requested not to share that information.”

“But if he’s alive…” Hack questions, “How did he survive?” 

“He was probably eaten by a Sea King and spat out later.” Sabo recited in a tired tone, “Or so my sources say, it sounded right.”

“What about that, sounded right?” Koala asked incredulously as Sabo shrugs, “Who are your sources?”

“More family members whose information I also won’t be sharing.”

His two companions accepted that as they moved on to the rest of the discussion.

“Hack, how close are we to Austral?” Sabo asked the fish man, “That was the closest island to his last known location.”

“We’re about a days away.” Hack informs him, "How close to the island do you need?”

“We’ll draw the colors and just dock.” Sabo tells him, “We are free to handle this in any way to see fit including calling other members in the area for aid if needed, there is no limit on this mission.”

“And what if we encounter other people who need rescuing and freeing?” Koala asks thoughtfully, “Are we on a time crunch or is there time to spare.”

“That will be up to our digression. We’ll help with what we can and call in support to help finish handling any situation we find ourselves in.” Sabo explains, "Preferably this mission is finished sooner than later, or else we’ll lose track of him with how chaotic he is.”

That last bit was muttered, Sabo hadn’t intended to say it at all as it slips out but thankfully it was quiet enough the others did hear him… or so he thought.

“Oh my god!” A look of realization crossed Koala’s face, “Sabo!”

Crap…

“Don’t!”

“But!”

“No!”

“What are you two on about?”

“Don’t you see Hack!” Koala shook him, “Sabo is the family member!”

“Really?” Hack looked skeptical as he turns to Sabo, “Is she correct?”

“She’s… not wrong.”

“So this is why you’re having the headache.” Hack guessed, “Your memories are trying to come back now that there’s a connection to them.”

“I don’t know… probably.”

“But… you always said you had a feeling you hated your family.” Koala points out, “Why take this mission?

“He’s… not my actual family?” That felt wrong to say, “I mean, my birth family… I’ve been told that he’s one of my brothers who found each other, well before.”

“Oh? And who told you that?”

“My not-grandfather apparently.” Sabo drops, might as well mess with them a bit, “I won’t go into to much detail but he shared some of my past with me… and knows I’m a rev.”

“How’d he feel about that?”

“Said it was fitting, whatever that meant.”

“Wait wait wait.” Koala stops them, “When did you have time to meet up with him, and all the way in the Grandline of all places? Aren’t you from the East Blue?”

“Um…”

“Unless he’s also out on these seas and we only stopped at one other place… Which means...” Koala turned to him, staring straight into his eyes, “You’re Grandfather was at the Marine base! And he saw you!”

“Uh…”

“Koala, leave him alone.” Hack pulls her back, “Remember, this is probably hard on him.”

Sabo was thankful as Koala’s probing was making his head hurt worse, causing him to groan into his hand as he covered his eyes.

“He’s not going to report me, if that's what you’re worried about.” Sabo tells her, “He was more surprised I was alive than that I’m in the Revolutionary Army if that tells you anything.”

“Good enough for me.”

“Now Sabo.” Hack turns to him, “If your headaches get worse and incapacitates you, what are we to do?”

“Leave me where I fall and keep doing the mission.” Sabo tells them, “I have some pain medicine from Doc he gave before we left… but we need to find Luffy and I’d rather not waste time trying to back track to Base to get me care unless absolutely necessary.”

“Fine.”

Koala wasn’t happy about it but didn’t fight it at his tone.

“Getting back on track.” Sabo pulls out the map showing the series of islands around where they are, “If we can’t find him on Astrul we should hit the island Mistal, Burmal, and Dustal next.

“Aren’t those islands all in Whitebeard’s territory?”

“Yes, but we should be fine as long as we don’t cause a disturbance.” Sabo tells them, “If there’s an issue then we will handle it then.”

“For now, let’s just track the Whitebeards’ movement in the newspapers.” Hack says, “We should be prepared if it looks like we might encounter each other.”

“Sounds good.” Sabo sighs out, feeling tired and warm, “Is there anything else that’s interesting in the paper?”

“There’s a new rookie on the scene it seems.” Koala informs him, “Seems to be tearing across the East Blue, is monikered ‘Fire-Fist.’”

“Go lay down some more.” Hack tells him, “We’ll come get you if we need anything.”

…

“Go before Koala ties you to the bed.”

“Fine.”

It’s not like they had much else to do, going to sleep was a good waste of time anyways.”

Now he just needs to remember where he set his headache medicine down. Oh well, he’ll find it later, he’ll just read the papers while he tries to rest.

Chapter Text

Ace grumbled a bit as he and Deuce double check their supplies. Being stuck on a deserted island with no food had them catching up on their hunger and running them low on money.

“I know you said you didn’t have anything useful in that bag of yours but can you double check?” Deuce asks as they travel between islands on the ship they build.

“I mean, sure,” Ace tells him, hauling the watermelon bag over, “But I’m pretty sure it’s just my spare clothes and maybe a compass or something.”

“You don’t know?” Deuce stares at him incredulously, “What if you’ve had food in there this whole time!”

“Nah.” Ace waves him off opening the bag and digging around in it, “All my food was in barrels, I wouldn’t keep anything in… here…”

Ace trails off as he registers what he touched at the bottom of his back, pulling it out to confirm his suspicions.

“What is it?” Deuce asks, leaning over for a closer look, “Is that a hat?”

Not replying he stares at the hat, turning it around in his hands, it shouldn’t be here… it should be at Makino’s…

Wait…

Bringing the hat closer as he stares at it, Ace realizes it’s not Luffy’s strawhat, but a different one, it was too small to be Luffy’s, and the band was a different shade of red. He turned it over again. There was a piece of paper tucked into the band.

Unfolding the paper reveal a note, written in Dadan’s familiar and rough hand writing.

‘Ace,

I think it goes without saying we all agree Luffy’s hand should stay here, however we wanted to leave you with something to help keep him close so I had everyone help in finding the closest looking hat we could for you to take on your journey. This way you also don’t have to worry about accidentally damaging it before finding him. Luffy’s actual hat is safe with Makino like we discussed.

Take care of yourself, brat and bring him home.

~Dadan’

“That hag.” Ace cursed out, fighting the tears and anger forming, “What else would I be doing.”

There were two numbers listed at the bottom of the page, both marked with only a letter, ‘M’ and ‘G’ respectively and Ace knows those are snail numbers.

“Uh…” Deuce looked confused, “You okay there? It’s just a hat isn’t it?”

“Yes and no.” Ace sighs out, refolding the note and  shoving it, and the fake hat, back into the bag, “It’s a similar hat to my brother’s, the folks at home got it for me it seems.”

“You have a brother?”

“Technically I have two but…” Ace trails of, looking to the horizon, “One’s dead and the other… was taken.”

“And that’s why you’re sailing isn't it?” Deuce asks cautiously, “To find him?”

“Of course!” Ace grins at him, “I’d do anything for him, and even though I was planning to set sail if he wasn’t taken, I at least have a reason and a goal to chase now, even if…”

Ace couldn’t voice it again…

“Anyways…” Ace quickly changes the topic, “How about we attack that ship over there?”

Deuce looks to where he jabbed his thumb, a gaudy rich looking boat that was waving a government flag.

“Looks like there might be some riches aboard.” Ace adds in, “I can do the attacking and distraction and you can run around and collect what you can.”

“As long as we don’t kill without reason, it sounds like a plan.” Deuce agrees, “After all we’re pirates now, might as well act like it.”

“Think we’ll get bounties from doing it?”

“Probably not, might need to attack a few more.

“Hmm, then let’s do it.”

“Not civilian merchant ships right?”

“Not all of them, just the nobles’ ones. They can afford to lose stuff and usually have some pretty valuable stuff.”

“Sounds fair.” Deuce concedes as they drift up the other ship’s hull, “You ready?”

“Of course!” Ace jumps up, grabbing onto the deck while Deuce ropes the two boats together. “Here we go.”

Ace flips himself up and over the railing, landing into a crouch on the deck, catching everyone’s attention.

“Who the hell are you?” Someone shouted as weapons were trained on him, “This is a private vessel, disembark now or else!”

“Sorry for disturbing you.” Ace gracefully  apologizes with a bow of his head, “I’m Portgas D. Ace, I’m here to rob you, nice to meet you.”

“What the hell!?”

The apology seems to catch them off guard and throw them off,

“Now then…” Ace continues, grins at them, “Let’s have some fun!”

A shot rang out and Ace flinched out of instinct but the bullet pass through him with a flick of his flames, leaving him unharmed. Ace charges forward, throwing himself right into the middle of everyone, causing a big enough commotion to summon everyone else aboard to his fight.

Perfect.

A sword went through him, making him turn, round-housing the guy who stabbed him.

“Don’t you know it’s rude to attack from behind?”

“What the hell!”

“It must be one of the curse fruits of the Grandline!”

“Get him!”

Their cries of action were soon cries of pain as Ace knocked everyone back. They were much of a challenge, heck the gators back home put up more of a fight then these guys…

Soon enough everyone was knocked out one way or another, Ace thinks he might have launched someone into the crow’s nest but oh well… might as well go help Deuce with the looting now.

Rooting around in all their pockets he gathered up all the Beri and jewelry they were wearing… why were the guards wearing jewelry he didn’t know but more for them he guessed.

“You done up here?” Deuce asks, dragging a big sack to one of the life boats, “Looks like you had fun.”

“Woah, that’s a lot!”

“I’d estimate it to be a couple thousand to a couple of hundred thousand Beri worth.” Deuce tells him, “We’ll need to find a place to trade it into that won’t report us to the Marines.”

“Actually, most banks won’t question it.” Ace tells him, “Especially in busy towns, they’ll try to undercut us of course but it’s better then nothing at the moment. We can also agree to let them take a small cut if they keep their mouths shut.”

“Why do you know this?”

“I thought everyone knew?” Ace said a bit confused, “Some places will even take the treasure as is, this necklace alone can buy a weeks’ worth of food for me if we find the right merchant wanting it.”

Ace jumps down to their boat to untie it while Deuce lowers the life boat with the treasure.

“Well where to next?”

“Wherever we want.”

“Ace.”

“I’m kidding, Conch Town will have a bank we can exchange at, along with a market.” He tells Deuce, “We can probably pick up both another crew member and an actual ship while we’re there.”

“Good, between the two of us we should be able to navigate there just fine.”

They tied the two boats together and sailed away, leaving the big guard ship to drift until someone aboard woke up.

“Well Deuce.” Ace leans back against the mast of Striker, kicking his feet up, “I’d say our first act as pirates was a success.”

“I agree.”

The day was nice, Ace thought. They’ll probably arrive at their destination in a couple of hours, maybe by the end of day… there was something he wanted to check out there.

His mind went to the hat in his bag, it may not be the real thing… but it still gave him a comfort, a reminder, of his goal here.

And that was good enough for him.

“Don’t just sit there!” Something hits the back of his head, “Get up and help me you asshole!”

“Sorry sorry.” Ace apologized, grabbing the oar Deuce had hit him with, “Let’s go!”

Chapter Text

Marco was going to kill him!

Izou doesn’t know what happened, as he runs around trying to find Sunny. It was just supposed to be a supply run when some other pirate crew landed and started firing cannon at everything.

He and Sunny got separated in the ensuing chaos and he hasn’t seen head nor hide of the child since and he was worried.

… What if this triggers bad memories? What if he’s stuck under rubble or bleeding somewhere?”

What if-

A scream from a lady nearby cuts off his thoughts as a group of three pirates bear down on her, guns aimed to kill, merciless joyful grins on their faces.

They’re the worst kind of pirates.

“Crap!”

Izou raises his own pistols, ready to stop them but he was just a tad too slow.

Something shot down from the roof and in-between them, crashing into the ground as the guns fired, the woman started screaming again while Izou’s blood froze because he saw what it was… or rather, who it was, thanks to his sharp eyes.

“What the hell!”

That was all one of the pirates got to say before suddenly they were all on the ground, bleeding from bullet wounds. Sunny just standing there with his arms out in protection of the woman on the ground.

The look on Sunny’s face made Izou pause, it wasn’t the usual bright, cheerful smile he’s had while running around. No. This was a fierce and dark glare as he looked down at the bodies.

It was not a look he liked seeing on a kid, let alone their kid…

“Sunny!” Izou froze a bit as the glare was directed towards him before Sunny’s usual bright look took over, “Are you alright?”

The woman he protected has scrambled off somewhere.

“What happened?” Izou asks, checking the boy over but seeing nothing out of the ordinary, “Were you shot?”

Sunny’s grin didn’t fade as he nods while laughing.

“It’s not funny!” Izou scolds him, looking for the injury, “Show me where the bullet wounds are, we need to treat them!”

Sunny just pointed to the downed pirates, groaning in pain from their wounds.

“What?”

Izou tried to understand, looking between the seemingly ok Sunny and the pirates with the bullet wounds… Sunny supposedly has a Devil Fruit powers right?

“Your power?” Izou asks, shooting at a pirate coming up behind him, “What is it exactly?”

Sunny grins brighter and just grabs his own face and just… pulls. The action startled Izou at first as the boy’s cheeks just stretch and stretch before Sunny let go, letting his skin snap back with a *thwap*

“How interesting…” the kid allowed Izou to pull his cheek to check himself, “You bounced the bullets back?”

Sunny confirmed his theory with a nod as Izou lets go, watching the check snap back again.

“So what are you?” Izou questions, looking Sunny over again poking him for a moment to check skin texture, “A Bouncing Person?”

Sunny shook his head as Izou took care of two pirates charging at them.

“Kind of reminds me of a rubber band, are you a Rubber Person?”

That got a nod before Sunny ran off toward the shore… except it was the shore the attacking pirates were docked at.

“Sunny! Wait!” But it was too late, Sunny stood in front of the row of cannons, all aiming towards him. “Sunny!”

The cannon’s fired and… Sunny blew up… literally like he was a balloon. It was certainly something to witness as each of the cannon balls hit Sunny’s expanded body before being launched back at each cannon with just as much force… Wiping them all out in an instant, leaving Sunny the last one standing as he grins back at Izou.

“Well, aren’t you full of surprises?” Izou couldn’t help but say as looks at the after math, a huge amount of relief flooding him, “Certainly able to take care of yourself if you have to, huh?”

The quiet ‘shi shi shi’ giggle was the only reply.

“I say we grab what we can and head back to the ship.” Izou starts leading the boy along, “The issue is taken care of now but we shouldn’t linger.”

As Izou looted some stores, he was still a pirate himself after all, Sunny followed along, curiously looking at everything even as half of it was in ruin.

Then the Marines showed up… and not just any Marines…

“Time to go!” Izou hooks an arm around Sunny’s stomach and hauls him and the supplies back to the errand ship they took here, “Under the deck, now, don’t come out until I say so!”

Izou all but throws Sunny into the haul with the supplies and practically locks the door on him. 

Normally he’d be much more careful about handling Sunny but this was Garp’s ship and while Izou can sense that the crazy old man wasn’t aboard, his right hand man was just as much of a nuisance. 

Especially when he’s charging right towards him. The last thing they need is Sunny getting a bounty.

“Bogard!” Izou blocked the sword, pretending that the rattling of the door behind was from the force and not Sunny trying to open the door, “What a pleasure, I had nothing to do with the attack on this island.”

Izou really hopes that the marine can’t sense Sunny behind him…

“I’m aware.” The hat clad man maneuvers around for another strike, “I am not here for you, my men will gather the responsible pirates, I bare a message.”

“Oh?”

“For your Captain.” Izous senses the lack of effort behind the blade strikes as he blocks yet another attack, “Something about getting in contact with an old drinking buddy or something.”

“I see.” Izou pushed back, “I’ll pass it on.”

Izou sends him flying back, not that Bogard really resisted, and kicked off the sailing.

Sunny was still trying to open the door, a bit after the island disappeared from view when Izou let him out.

The boy busted through the door and looked around a bit eagerly before looking disappointed, looking no worse for wear.

“Sorry about that, Sunny.” Izou apologizes, hoping he didn’t scare him too much, “But those were really strong Marines, we don’t want you getting a bounty before you get the chance to go home.”

The boy just huffs at him, clearly not happy about something as he crossed his arm in a sorta pout.

It was a bit awkward as Izou didn’t know what was wrong…

“You wanna see how long it takes the others to figure out what your Devil Fruit powers are?” Izou prompts as he adjusts their course, “We could make it a game of shorts.”

That sparked some interest but he was still pouting.

…

…

“And I’ll ask Thatch to make you a whole plate of meat for you as an apology?”

There he goes, back to the big bright smile of his.

“Is there anyone else who’s seen your powers?”

Sunny nodded and disappeared below deck for a moment before bringing back a… pineapple.

“Really? Marco knows?” Izou was confused, Marco would have shared the information with the rest of the on ship commanders in case of an incident, “He didn’t say anything.”

Sunny just shrugged and swallowed the pineapple whole, making Izou shudder a bit thinking that any one else that would probably hurt…

The trip back was nice and mostly quiet, with Sunny running out to look at everything that moved. Izou watched him for a moment before he had an idea.

“Hey Sunny!” Izou beckons him over, “You ever considered trying on a dress?”

Chapter Text

“Why are you pouting?”

“Hmmp.

“Is this because Sunny stuck his tongue out at the outfit you brought him?”

“…”

“Come on, you should know better.” Marco pays his shoulder, “Not everyone will be willing to dress up for you.”

“But it would have looked so cute on him!”

“Probably but we can’t make him.”

“Yeah, I know.” Izou signs out, leaning back against the rail, “By the way, I found out what his Devil Fruit powers are. Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“What do you mean ~yoi?”

“Sunny implies that you’ve seen him use them.”

Marco looks at him both confused and bewildered.

“I don’t recall ever seeing him doing anything special or strange.” Marco clarifies, “How did you find out?”

“Well… he… may have gotten shot during our supply run…” Izou admits looking a tad nervous, “But he literally jumped in front of the bullets before I could stop him!”

Marco, of course, looked upset at the news, but not as upset as Izou was expecting.

…

“Oh my god!” Izou realized as Marco pinched the bridge of his nose, “You let him get shot too!?!

“I thought it missed when I didn’t see any injuries on him.” Marco adds his own admission, “I wasn’t going to worry about it since the kid didn’t seem bothered at having guns pointed at him.”

“Yeah… that’s thanks to the powers.” Izou tells him, polishing one of his guns, “Bullets bounce right back at the shooter.”

“That… actually explains a lot.”

“Cannon balls too.”

“Izou!”

“Hey! Again! He did it before I could stop him!” Izou defends, “Actually managed to take out the pirate crew who attacked the island as well.”

“Impressive.” Marco agrees, still frowning at the samurai, “But let’s try to keep him out of danger if we can.”

“Yeah… not sure that’s going to be something we can promise…”

Izou said that as Sunny ran across deck, tripping over nothing and would’ve rolled off into the ocean if he hadn’t run into Pops’ chair.

“We can still at least try.” Marco says with a sigh, “Anyways what exactly are his powers?”

“Oh I don’t know the full extent of them but something rubber based, most likely Paramecia.” Izou informs him, watching Sunny now climbing over Pops. “I figure you should know, even if I thought you already did, but we are going to see how long it takes before the others figure it out.”

“Sounds fun.” Marco remarks dryly, rolling his eyes, “You all act like we don’t do anything fun and keep making bets about Sunny.”

“Oh come on, I know you have a hand in those pools as well!” Izou accuses pointing his finger at him, “Don’t act like Sunny isn’t the best thing to happen to us in a while!”

“I’m not, but you make it sound like we didn’t do anything before.”

“Because we really didn’t, bets were small and fast and known.” Izou reasons, “Sunny is new! And we don’t know anything about him! It brings a sort of new life to the bets!”

“Fair enough.”

…

…

Pops was laughing at something Sunny did.

“I think Pops will try to get him to join the crew.” Marco says, “What do you think?”

“That’s a fool’s bet and you know it!”

“Never hurts to try ~yoi.”

“Maybe try with Thatch.” Izou huffs out, “I’m smarter than to take any bets against Pops.”

“Thatch retaliates in pranks.” Marco responds, watching Pops and Sunny seemingly have a one sided conversation, “I’d rather not.”

“So how is Sunny doing physically?” Izou questions as they watch Sunny look at something in the newspaper Pops was reading. “Any concerns with his injuries?”

“Nope, he’s practically fully healed at this point.” Marco tells, “and he has more energy then we’ll know what to do with. There’s only one thing I’m concerned with but I’ll ask him about it in his next check up.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“His brand.” Marco frowns, mentioning the mark, “It’s worse than any burn I’ve dealt with and I want to see if he wants to either cover it or let me remove it.”

“You thinking some kind of nerve damage?”

“Possibly, it was nearly burnt black.” Marco tells him as Sunny goes to pester Stefan now. “They had to have had the brand held longer than necessary or was repeatedly branded and frankly, I don’t know if I want to find out which one it was.”

“Sounds horrible…”

“Regardless, I would likely have to remove some of the scar tissue anyways.” Marco leans against the railing, looking out to the sea, “I want to ask Jinbe if we can use the Sun Pirates’ symbol or something similar to help over it, if Sunny wants to cover it.”

“If he says no?”

“Then we can design something for him.” Marco answers, “I would suggest Pops’ mark but that depends on if he wants to be tied to us in the future.”

“Something that leaves no connection.” Izou muses, “A way to be free from everything, I like it… Although the Sun Symbol the Sun Pirates’ use might be too recognizable, I can certainly work with a Sun design that won’t be mistaken for it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, my Clan crest has a Sun symbol in it.” Izou tells him, “It’s not recognizable enough but I wouldn’t mind if he uses it, it can be a secret connection to us that way.”

“Hmm…”

“How about I draw something up for you.” Izou pats his shoulder, “That way when you ask Jinbe and Sunny you can show them for approval if they agree or not.”

“Sounds good, thanks.”

“You know, Jinbe’s a Warlord.” Izou stated like Marco didn’t already know, “Maybe he can access Marine files, see if there’s a missing child report that matches Sunny?”

“It’s doubtful, he is still a pirate.” Marco rebuttals but sees what Izou was saying. “But it never hurts to ask, more places to check the better we can find out where he’s from and if he wants to return.” 

“You think he wants to go back?” Izou asks, “He seems pretty happy here.”

“I don’t know…”

Marco watches as Pops says something to Sunny, only to let out a bellow of a laugh as Sunny just sticks his tongue out at him, his way of saying ‘no’ apparently, before running off to bother someone else… Probably Thatch, it was almost lunch time after all.