SkyGem: Wow. I am absolutely floored. I must admit, I didn't expect this fic to be so popular. You guys are absolutely amazingly lovely people! So as a thank you, here's chapter 2! It didn't exactly come out how I wanted it to, but I hope it's still good. Enjoy!
Izo ends up being the second Whitebeard pirate to be adopted into the Strawhats.
In fact, he joins them so soon after Marco does, that when the outside world finds out about it, they assume the two joined as a pair.
Izo doesn't mind that at all.
Because back before everything went to hell, before he lost everything important to him in one fell swoop, Marco and Thatch and Ace were something like Izo's best friends.
After the war, Izo and his siblings scattered, falling off the face of the pirating world for months. Never ones to stay out of trouble, many of them soon joined new crews temporarily, or some divisions even created their own crews. But time passed and as it became obvious that Marco, the only one with any hope of bringing their splintered crew back together, wasn't planning to come back, these arrangements became less temporary.
Izo knows that none of his siblings hold any resentment towards Marco for not coming back for them; they all know that Marco had been the closest to their father, as his oldest son. They had been together since the very beginning, and so if he finds it too painful to take up their father's mantle, that's his choice. But his siblings will all wait for him just in case, even if they know he won't return – because that's what family is for.
Izo, on the other hand, has taken it upon himself to find his only surviving best friend, and talk the self-sacrificing idiot out of whatever stupid thoughts he may be having about not being a good captain.
So far, he hasn't had much luck.
Marco has been so maddeningly good at staying off the radar these past two years that the marines have actually retracted his bounty, assuming he'd died in the war.
So after all the trouble Izo's gone through to locate his wayward eldest brother, he really doesn't expect to find him on the one day he's not actively looking for him.
He's taken the day off to re-stock his ammo supply and make sure his precious katana is still in good shape, and once all the errands are done, he's hoping to possibly get a new kimono.
Izo is walking back to the inn he's staying at, idly wondering if it would be worth going without food for the next little while to get some more makeup, when all those thoughts go flying out the window as he catches sight of a strange little ragtag group walking up the road towards him, garnering stares and whispers from the townspeople. Everyone recognizes the Strawhat Pirates immediately, from how often they've been in the news recently.
They seem to have gained two new members as well, both of whom Izo recognizes in a heartbeat.
Jinbe is walking at the back of the group, having a conversation with their shipwright and looking for all the world like he was born to stand among this unusual little crew. And that would be surprising enough on its own, but Izo's main focus is on his big brother, the target of his search, who is walking at the head of the crew.
He's in the middle of what looks like a fascinating conversation with Nico Robin, judging from how absorbed they are, and neither are paying a lick of attention to Strawhat Luffy, who is hanging off Marco like a monkey.
The young captain is clinging to Marco's back, giggling as he tugs at Marco's unruly blond hair and arranges it in different ways, and his victim doesn't even bat an eye.
No one on the crew seems to notice Izo's staring at first – he's just another face in the crowd after all, and they're all so caught up in each other. But then Strawhat looks away from playing hairdresser, and his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
Izo's eyes narrow – he never exchanged words with the brat in the midst of all the fighting, and he wouldn't have expected the kid to remember him (he looks like the especially dense kind).
Then the next thing he knows, Strawhat is patting Marco's cheek and tugging at his hair to get his attention, and chattering on about something while pointing in Izo's direction.
Izo could swear he hears his name at one point, but he doesn't have time to dwell on that fact because then Marco turns those lazy eyes on him, expression shocked yet happy, and it feels like a dam has broken.
"Izo?" asks Marco, taking a halting step forward, and Strawhat wisely hops off his back and onto the floor, just moments before Izo crashes into his brother, wrapping both arms around him. He's sobbing now, and he can't find it in himself to care that his mascara's running, because Marco's here, and he's safe, and Izo's not alone anymore.
It takes him a while to get his tears back under control, but when he does, there are mascara tracks on his face, and on the shoulder of Marco's shirt, not that he seems to mind.
"Are you alright?" he asks when Izo finally pulls away, his expression worried.
Izo nods.
They're still standing in the middle of the street, but the Strawhats have closed ranks, surrounding Izo and Marco and Luffy, and glaring at anyone who dares even look their way.
Izo finds it kind of endearing. Never mind the dirty looks they're getting because they're blocking more than half the street.
Strawhat is standing behind Marco, looking around him at Izo with a curious expression.
"You're Izo, right?" he asks.
Izo nods.
"You were there at the war too, right?"
Izo nods again.
Strawhat's smile widens.
"Mango talks about you all the time!" he chirps, and a startled bark of laughter escapes Izo.
"It's Marco," his older brother hisses, smacking Strawhat upside the head, a scowl on his face.
"That's what I said," replies Luffy, scowling.
Marco rolls his eyes, but he doesn't seem very upset, and Izo decides he likes the fond expression in his eyes much more than the grief he had gotten used to seeing there in the few weeks they'd been together after oyaji's death.
And when Strawhat turns to him with stars in his eyes and asks, "Do you want to join my crew?" Izo doesn't hesitate to accept the offer.
Marco stares at him with a startled expression on his face, as do most of the other Strawhats, but the captain himself starts jumping around like an excitable puppy.
"We have a new nakama! We have a new nakama!" he cheers. Hopping over to his first mate, he tugs at the pirate hunter's sleeve, saying, "Look Zoro! He's just like Bon-chan and Iva-chan!"
Zoro just nods in agreement, humoring his captain, and promptly turns him and nudges him towards someone else, in a silent order to leave him the hell alone. Luffy doesn't look perturbed, instead heading right over to his sniper to bug him.
"Bon-chan?" asks Izo in confusion, looking towards Marco.
The blond shrugs.
Jinbe's laughing now though, and when Izo turns to look at him, the fishman replies, "They're friends of Luffy's. Okamas. Ivankov-san was at the war, if you'll remember. The one with the purple hair and the rather large face?"
Eyes widening as he remembers who Jinbe is talking about, Izo whips his head around to look at his young new captain. Walking briskly up to him and putting hands on both his shoulders, Izo makes sure he has his full attention before hissing, "I am not an okama."
Luffy looks confused then.
"You're not?" he asks.
Izo shakes his head.
"I am a crossdresser. There is a difference!"
"Oh…" says Luffy, looking thoughtful. After a few moments of silence, he asks, "…do you have anything against okamas?"
"Of course not!" replies Izo, brows furrowing. He may not identify himself as one, but even he can respect them for having the strength to be true to themselves.
Luffy nods at his response, seeming relieved.
"Good! Because Bon-chan and Iva-chan are my friends and I don't want anyone on my crew who are mean to them!"
Izo nods; he wouldn't expect anything else. A captain who doesn't support his friends and crewmates does not deserve respect.
Grabbing Izo's hand, Luffy turns and walks in a different direction than they'd been heading in before, saying, "Let's go back to the Sunny! We need to introduce her to our newest nakama! And have another party!"
"Luffy! We had Marco's welcome party just last week!" shouts the navigator. "And Jinbe's was just a month before that! If we keep having this many parties, you're going to drink our treasury dry!"
Izo soon finds out that the reason the rest of the crew were so startled at his quick acceptance of their captain's offer was because it had apparently taken one month of sailing with them for Marco to finally agree.
Izo can't help but laugh when he hears this, throwing his arms around the phoenix's shoulders and saying, "He always was a stubborn one! Always worrying over things that don't matter. He needs to learn to trust his instincts more!"
"Yeah!" agrees Luffy, from Marco's other side. "See Margo? I told you, you should loosen up a bit!"
"It's Marco!"
"Right."
Izo chuckles at the exchange. It's strange, seeing Marco like this. In so many ways, he's just like he's always been, trying so hard to seem nonchalant and not show his affection towards his crewmates, and always trying to be the responsible older brother.
But at the same time, he's so different, more relaxed. And it makes sense. Because in this crew, he's not the first mate, not a division commander. All those responsibilities that had been weighing him down have disappeared.
It's nice, seeing this new side of his brother.
And Izo has Strawhat to thank for that.
Marco had always been a good judge of character, even if he can be a stubborn shithead sometimes, which is part of why Izo had felt okay with accepting Luffy's invitation so easily, despite not knowing him so well.
And it helps that this is honestly the happiest Izo has been in a long, long time.
He has his brother, he has a captain, he has a crew.
And soon enough, he'll be back in the embrace of the sea mother.
And it's in this moment that Izo thinks that maybe, just maybe, things will finally be okay.
SkyGem: And that's a wrap! So sorry for this relatively short chapter you guys! Izo was actually a lot harder to write than I thought he would be. Which is sad, because I like writing him. There will definitely be a lot more of him in future chapters. There was so much more I wanted to expand on in this chapter, but none of it seemed to fit in anywhere… Also I'd just like to say again that I am completely blown away by all the lovely reviews I got on the first chapter. They really do make my day! I'm already planning on getting out the next chapter relatively soon, but hey, if we can get another 40 reviews for chapter 2, I'll see what I can do about getting number three out tomorrow ;) Anyways, do let me know what you thought, and if you have any requests for who you want to show up next, or anything you want to happen, don't hesitate to let me know! I'll see what I can do! So, that's it for tonight, and I'll see you all soon. I promise next chapter will be more interesting.