Harlock is a bad dad, but he tries his best.

People were fragile. Not in the metaphorical sense – though that much was true as well – but literally. Bodies broke easily.

Children in particular were very fragile.

Tadashi sported a split lip, bloodied nose, black eye, and more bruises than I cared to guess at. He'd torn open the knuckles of both hands in his attempt to fight back. I had no doubts he'd broken a few fingers in the process.

The room stung with the scent of disinfectant and the glares Kei and Dr. Ban tossed my way. I made no attempt to defend myself. I'd made quite the mistake.

Tadashi seemed to be the only one not upset with me. His ego was the only part of him that had come out unscathed.

A couple hours before, he had still been in one piece, tailing after me as I wandered the streets of a market sector. The planet was an industrial one, near-hollowed from mining. Had I not been taller than most of the crowd, Tadashi would have gotten lost every time he stopped to gape at a skyscraper or rumbling factory.

I would halt my steps on occasion and glance back to ensure he was still at my heels, often waiting for him to dart through the crowd back to me.

"Captain," he'd called, racing up to me after one of these instances. His eyes were wide like a scared rabbit's. "Some guy stole my money!"

For a moment, I wondered why he'd had money in the first place before I recalled that Tochiro had started giving him a small allowance. It wasn't much, something like two cosmo doubloons a week, but Tadashi always looked at them like he'd never seen money before in his life.

Then again, I suppose he hadn't.

"Pickpockets are going to be difficult to track in a city like this," I said. Cruel as it was, this would have to serve as a lesson for him to be more careful with how he held his money. He wouldn't learn anything if I replaced it for him, and there was no way we could get it back.

"He wasn't a pickpocket," he muttered. "He just took it 'cause he was taller than me."

My brows shot up. "You let him?"

It came out a bit crueler than I'd intended, but it was too late to back out now. Tadashi scrunched his shoulders and gave a huff. "I didn't let them, but you said we shouldn't draw attention to ourselves, so I wasn't going to start nothing."

"Anything," I corrected. It was true this planet wasn't a safe space for us, but spats between young boys were undoubtedly common enough not to draw too many eyes. "If they're still where you left them, go ahead and try to get back what's yours. You should stand up for yourself. Don't back down."

I hadn't allowed him to carry his gun while on the planet. I had it in case of trouble, but I didn't imagine he would need it. Most would back down at the threat of a fight, and it was just a handful of doubloons, nothing worth spilling blood over.

I had no doubts Tadashi could handle himself in his endeavor, but moments after he slipped back into the crowd, I made a game of spotting him within it, keeping far enough away that I hoped he wouldn't notice. In the end, I lost sight of him.

He reappeared ten minutes later, grinning from ear to ear as he held up his reclaimed prize for me to see. His eye had already begun to swell shut, and his teeth were stained pink with blood from his lips. With each gasping, wheezing breath, his body shook from excitement or adrenaline or pain.

It was enough to make me sick. My eye darted from wound to wound as horror sank in. I took hold of one hand, examining the damage. "What happened?"

"I won!" he said, though I couldn't comprehend that to be true. There was no way his opponent could have come out worse than him.

"There you are!" someone roared. I looked up to find a man shoving his way through the crowd toward us. People barked their offense as he barreled through them. "Get back here, you little brat!" His wild eyes stabbed into Tadashi, though the boy glared in return.

"It's mine!" Tadashi snapped, though his voice wavered. I found his hand curling into mine as he stepped back slightly behind me. I could feel his fingers trembling against mine.

Realization came like a blow to the head, and I pulled Tadashi farther behind me. The man halted in his tracks as he came to face me. "Sir, were you trying to steal from him?" I demanded in a cool voice. I could feel my rage flickering in my eye. I'd expected this sort of behavior from a cowardly street rat child, not an even more cowardly adult.

The man hesitated, his gaze darting to and fro. "The little bastard bit me!" he stammered, shoving his bleeding hand into my face.

"You wouldn't let go of my money!" Tadashi said.

That explained how he had "won."

"I suggest you leave," I said, leaning my weight to one leg. My cape drifted out enough from the shift to reveal the shining handle of my saber. "I don't take kindly to thieves or anyone who harms my crew."

Had the area not been so crowded, I would have broken a few bones on principle. A man who took advantage of those weaker than him was not truly a man at all.

He got the message, and Tadashi grumbled his thanks between his insistence that he had it under control.

"My apologies," I said once he stopped to take a breath. "I should have been there to back you up. I didn't realize how much taller than you he was when you said that."

"Nah, I took care of it," he said, nodding.

That didn't make me feel any less guilty.

Despite his assurances that he was fine, I dragged him back to the ship without the parts we'd gone to retrieve for Tochiro. When Tochiro saw Tadashi's state, he didn't complain.

"I won!" Tadashi said anytime someone commented on his appearance.

No one seemed to believe him, and they all frowned at me for my prominent lack of injury.

As the doctor bandaged Tadashi's hands and Kei applied antiseptic, Tadashi kicked his legs and tried to hide each wince.

"So next time-" I began.

"Next time, I dodge more," he said with a nod. Kei smacked her hands to each side of his face to hold him still.

I couldn't help but smile. "Well, I was going to say hide your money better. But yes, dodge too. I'll also need to teach you how to punch in order to avoid injury."

"Please don't encourage him, Captain," the doctor sighed.

Tadashi, with his legs still childishly kicking back and forth, barked his offense. "Hey, I'm a man! I need to know how to fight good!"

"Well," Kei and I corrected in sync.

Yes, he was a man, a man who had kept his hand in mine the whole way back to keep us from getting separated again. Well, he was getting there.

Monono has never had actual schooling, so I'm sure his grammar is just the worst.