Chapter III: On Board the Moby Dick


A/N: Thank you for everyone that started viewing, following, and even marking this story as a favorite (thanks especially to the first person to favorite, Shiranui Rixman). This is actually my first solid attempt to write fanfiction. I'll try my best to update as quickly as possible. Thanks again to all who will bear with me on this first attempt. Also, to explain why I have the names of some of the characters at certain points, I like to note places where the story shifts perspectives or the focus is on the viewpoint of one particular character or set of characters. I hope you all enjoy the journey :)

Disclaimer: To assert once and hopefully never again, One Piece is a product of Eiichiro Oda. I have only legal rights to my own personal touches to the storyline and characters.


"Speech"

Thoughts or emphasis or scenery changes or significant time gaps

ANGRY VOICE

*noises* (except laughter)

*actions*


Somewhere on the Grand Line (Paradise)

After two weeks of recovery


"Luffy!"

Everyone has finally recovered. Ace, Sabo, and Kitsune refused to leave Luffy until he felt better after they were initially released. However, their combined brotherly stubbornness and protectiveness faltered when the head nurse insisted they leave in that oh so sweet command that promised or else. She allowed their continued stay on the condition that the boys not crowd Luffy and behaved.

Now the four boys were staying in a cabin aboard the Moby Dick. The crew bought some clothes that were somewhat similar to the design of the ragged clothes the boys were wearing when they arrived onto the ship. Apparently the Whitebeard Pirates did stop by an island shortly before the boys regained consciousness. They couldn't find any beds aside from the one, but it was big enough to fit the four, if a bit of a snug fit.

The older boys agreed that their devil fruit-users - Luffy especially - should not reveal their abilities to anyone on the ship. The slave traders did mention how valuable their powers made them in the auctions. Kitsune, Ace, and Sabo shuddered at the thought of someone buying poor innocent Luffy and abusing him. Really, this discussion was solely for Luffy's benefit, as Kitsune knew his own abilities were outside most standard devil fruits. Case in point, the young boy didn't exactly recall ever seeing or even hear a single mention of his devil fruit incarnated by another person in all the books he's read. He did remember Grandfather saying he was a really special kind of devil fruit-user. And in their world, special meant dangerous and coveted.

Plus, Luffy still had trouble with his control, unfortunately. That and Luffy and the sea had a bit of running gag between them as the youngest D could not stop falling into it. But, like with all devil fruit-users, the boy was essentially a hammer, an anchor that sunk and drowned if someone else didn't save him first. The boys were lucky that two of them could swim and all three had good reflexes, or Luffy would have fallen off the slavers' ship long before their break for freedom. Which returns Kit to the boys' current predicament.

Kitsune had a firm hold on Luffy's shirt but not much else. Any moment now and his foot would slip off the railing of the ship. Just after the boys settled into their new room and change clothing, Luffy decided to slip outside. Luffy plus curiosity plus railings to climb equaled disaster. The straw-hatted boy fell off the railings, but Kitsune luckily noticed Luffy's absence in time to duck his head out the door, see his little brother suddenly jerked from his wobbly walk on top of the wooden structure, and leap after the toppling boy.

Kitsune's foot slipped a bit more from its precarious hold. He would have used his devil fruit, but they were out in the open where any passerby could see (it didn't occur to him that they would actually try and help them).

As he opened his mouth to yell for help, he felt familiar hands grip his legs. Ace and Sabo struggled to pull the two back up but to no avail. They have barely recovered from their injuries. The two boys began to slip from their grasp. Suddenly another pair of hands hauled the two up. The sudden momentum caused all four boys to fall back on their rescuer. Amidst the tangled limbs and of the four boys, was a disgruntled first commander.

"What were you guys thinking - yoi? Everyone on the ship is at dinner, so if I had not come to check on you four and take you to the galley…" The commander said as he got back onto his feet and shook his head at the thought. "Can any of you even swim-yoi?"

Ace may have felt a bit grateful for the rescue, but his pride did not agree. "Sabo and I can swim," the raven huffed. "Kit never wanted to learn, and Luffy's pretty hopeless. Not that it's any of your business," snapped Ace. Sabo placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, censor directed at the older boy before he turned to Marco and bowed.

"Thank you for rescuing our brothers. We are very grateful," Sabo expressed, forcing his other brother to bow with him.

Polite brat, thought Marco. "No need to thank me - yoi. You kids just need be more careful. Now, as I said, I originally was coming to grab you four for dinner since you guys missed lunch – yoi." At this, the four boys' stomachs rumbled.

With a small smile, the first commander led the way to the ship's galley. The boys dutifully followed, Luffy bouncing along while the older boys walked a bit in front of the younger, their stance still a bit tense and wary. Upon entering the galley, the boys' eyes bugged.

The first commander chuckled. The galley was a simple arrangement where people waited in several different lines for the chefs to dish out different entrees and dishes. There were many large picnic tables to seat scattered groups of pirates that chatted as they ate. The smell of good food and the hum of hundreds of conversations pervaded every corner of the galley.

The boys literally had drool pooling out from their mouths. Sitting not too far off, the fourth division commander looked over from his group before standing up and walking over.

"Long time no see kids," greeted the jovial pompadoured man. "How's the pineapple head treating you four? He may be a bit serious but trust me when I say he has his moments."

Said pineapple head walloped his friend on the back of his head. "Just because the kids do it, doesn't mean I'll let you do it – yoi."

"Ow," complained the chef with a slight whine. "Anyways, this is the galley where you guys can get your meals three times a day. Just get into one of the lines and choose four things that you would like to eat, and the chefs will serve them onto your plate," stated Thatch.

The straw hat – Luffy – pouted at this.

"Brats, four servings should be more than enough – yoi." Kids.

"And we don't let anything go to waste on this ship, especially with as many people as we have," Thatch stated with heavy emphasis on waste. Like any decent cook, the head chef did not tolerate people just throwing away perfectly good food.

Ace and Sabo fidgeted uneasily at their hosts' blatant show of hospitality and kindness.

"We won't be able to repay you for feeding us," Ace bluntly pointed out.

"Nonsense. We took care of you four, so we're hardly going to let you get sick again from not eating. Those days at sea didn't exactly do your health any good either," Thatch countered.

"Still –" Sabo cut Ace off.

"Thank you for feeding us. My brother protests only because he doesn't understand that adults normally feed children under their care free of charge in most cases."

Ace glowered at the interruption but did nothing to contradict his brother except to mutter, "I'm not a child." Marco looked on thoughtfully. Didn't their parents feed them? Thatch filed this information away as he gestured for the four brothers to follow him through one of the lines.

Luffy's eyes now shined with literal stars. "Shishishishi. Look at all this food, Ace. I want all meat!"

Luckily, the older brothers convinced Luffy to eat a more balanced meal. Once everyone settled and said thanks, the boys, well, literally dove into their meals. Thatch, Marco, and several surrounding crew mates gaped at the four boys. They ate with gusto, tearing through their meals with not a single word of conversation. At least until Ace snatched some pieces of meat from Sabo's plate while he was staring off at something. Sabo's gaze quickly darted to his plate before he retaliated by spearing some bread off of Ace's plate. The two boys' thieving soon dissolved to outright scuffling.

"Hey, you two! Knock it off!" Marco broke the two older boys apart by grabbing each by their shirt and coat collars. Both sullenly glared at the other until their stare drifted to their oldest and youngest brothers…who were snatching pieces off their unattended plates.

"Honestly, there's more than enough food for everyone," sighed Thatch as he helped the frustrated first commander separate the four squabbling brothers. When Ace and Sabo saw their other brothers stealing half of their dinners, the former decided to kick at Marco, surprising the man into letting go, while Sabo simply slipped his new blue coat. Sabo pounced on Kit while Ace pounded on Luffy. Now the two commanders each held a pair of sullen boys.

"Seriously? I know boys may not be fond of manners but were you four raised by animals?" shouted Marco. "You guys do NOT have to fight over food. If you want more, you may go back in line and ask for seconds, but don't steal off other people's plates."

Ace answered the first commander with a huff, and Luffy pouted. Sabo and Kit looked on sheepishly, both a bit red-faced when they thought back on their behavior.

The first commander felt another headache coming. Thatch only looked bemused with the entire affair.

Once the brats apologized (namely Sabo and Kit as Ace only turned away until Kit smacked him, and Sabo scolded the boy to remember his lessons. Luffy remained somewhat oblivious but copied his older brothers), the group settled down for dinner again. This time, the commanders allowed the brats to grab as much food as they wanted, and the kids returned with towering plates of food.

The whole table then watch in a mix of stunned awe and slight disgust and horror as the boys dug in. Compared to before, the food seemed to just disappear from their plates with even more fervor. In a few minutes, most of the Whitebeards in the galley stopped eating to blatantly gape at their guests tucking away amazing amounts of food for boys their age.

Quietly, the crew members made bets on how which boy would eat the most or who would choke first (Kit and Luffy sort of tied depending on who you asked). Marco's bland look remained as he ignored his crew mates' immaturity.

"Where does it all go?" Thatch thought out loud. "Man, you guys sure must have some crazy metabolism to eat that much. Slow down, you're still recovering, you know!" Well, I guess those small meals we gave them while they were recovering did their stomachs well.

Finally, the boys stopped eating. Thatch looked on in amazement. None of the boys really lost their skinny appearance. They may have lost the skeleton look once they've healed, but they still looked a bit runty and frail for young boys, especially after eating about a better half of a dozen plates each. Thatch filed these thoughts into the mental file of all the particular and worrying behavior and tells of their new "guests".

If the chef guessed right, their guests wouldn't be guests for long. Not if their father had anything to do with it (during their last conversation, Pops had a familiar gleam in his yellow eyes, a warm look when he said the boys would be their "guests". The chef would bet a week's worth of chores their father wanted to replace it with a far more personal address).

Luffy began to sag against his raven-haired brother; Sabo's eyes drooped, half-lidded with fatigue; Kit kept nodding off; even Ace had trouble keeping his head up. The boys have had a long evening both commanders thought.

Marco and Thatch hustled the boys back into their room and tucked them in for the night. Ace tried to protest the treatment but fell asleep halfway through. The boys looked quite adorable when they were sleeping: Ace's face softened, the broodiness and mistrust of the day gone, while Luffy instinctively curled into his brothers, and Kit tried to sprawl more onto his younger siblings than on the bed. The suspected Zoan wasn't exactly large, so it worked.

The commanders closed the door behind them with one last glance at the brothers.


The next few weeks


Ace could not understand it. The brothers were strangers, uninvited guests on the ship, yet the pirates treated them like they were part of the crew.

After the incident on the first night, one of the older boys always remained with Luffy outside of their room with constant reminders to not reveal his devil fruit powers. Luffy inevitably slipped up, but not too badly that Ace, Sabo, or Kit couldn't cover for him.

The boys grouped together, barely venturing far from their cabin. That was until Thatch started bugging them to come out and explore the ship. The fourth division commander would usually join them during meals and show them various places on the Moby Dick. Even Ace's iron distrust cracked in the face of the affable tall man.

He found himself drawn into the pranks Thatch played on his fellow commanders and their divisions. Ace soon found himself wandering off to join Thatch for one thing or another. He may be extremely hostile, but he was also a ten-year-old kid at heart.


The top hatted boy was also drawn out by the experiences on the ship. As the child of a noble, Sabo has read many books (forced and on his own initiative), but books almost never told the whole story. He noticed on the first night that the Whitebeard Pirates also included a rare sight, a fishman. The books said the race amounted to no more than beasts, but Sabo wanted to find out for himself the truth. Surely if the books had the facts then a fishman would not be able to succeed as a powerful pirate, much less a commander.

It took a few days, but Sabo's perseverance paid off. He finally managed to corner the fishman commander of the eight division Namur.

"Hello."

The fishman did not seem to note the boy greeting him, assuming the child was maybe speaking to his brother Fossa.

"You're a fishman, aren't you?" inquired Sabo.

Namur blinked and turned fully to the child waving and walking toward him. He eyed the human boy warily before replying.

"I am. What of it? Do you need something?" Namur expected the boy to maybe mock him or just leave. He did not expect the boy to perk up and smile at him.

"Oh cool. I read all sorts about fishman, but I want to know the real story,"

"Real story?"

"Yes, books usually don't tell the whole tale, don't you think so? Hearing from a fishman personally would really be something and help clear up any lies or misconceptions, so please will you answer some of my questions, sir?"

Namur felt flattered and interested. Humans, children especially, never really acted this way with him outside the family.

He found out quickly the child Sabo was intellectual and curious brat. Namur really enjoyed the conversation with the boy. Sabo knew quite a bit for his age, and Namur soon was drawn into topics on various islands, navigation, and the rights of people. Sabo equally enjoyed the discussion. For the next several days he would meet Namur and other crew mates to discuss some of the thoughts bouncing through his head.


So bored grumbled Kitsune as he watched some whales swim past.

Ace nowadays spent a lot of time with Thatch, and Sabo loved to discuss serious and interesting topics with various Whitebeard Pirates, Namur especially. The fox Zoan never really liked hanging around so many people at once, so he usually opted to keep 'Luffy watch' in their other siblings' absence. Neither child felt particularly happy about their brothers' fun and incidental neglect of the eldest and youngest sibling.

Kitsune knew they didn't mean to forget about them, but Sabo and Ace were only ten and active young boys (in retrospect, Kitsune was also a young boy and twelve, but he also took on a lot of responsibility over Luffy since he was young, so he seldom felt his own age at times. It didn't help his Zoan devil fruit had some other side-effects on his mentality).

Luffy didn't understand things so well and consequently clung that much harder to the eldest boy.

Disuse of devil fruit powers probably did not help matters. Luffy kept squirming and fidgeting with the urge to stretch and contort. Kitsune himself wanted to run, climb, and just slip out of his human skin for a bit and play with his powers.

But Ace and Sabo would be on them even if they only did it for a split second. They could practice in the room, but the cramp quarters did not suit itself to a rocketing Luffy or a restless and slightly pyro-manic fox. So here the two were on what Luffy deemed 'his special seat'.

The whale figurehead had quite a bit of room, so unless Luffy ran off of it or rolled, he shouldn't fall. But Kitsune kept close just in case.

Suddenly a bright figure of blue and gold swooped from behind and landed before the boys.

"What are you two doing - yoi?" The gold and blue flames of the bird parted to reveal the First Division Commander Marco. Luffy's eyes gleamed in delight and wonder.

"Shishishi! Cool, how did you do that?"

"I ate a devil fruit and now can transform into a mythical Zoan-type, a phoenix," Marco replied with a barely-there grin.

When Kit heard the word mythical, he rose from his laid-back position on the figurehead. Mythical usually referred to things of myth and legend - something like him, then. The other Zoan opened his mouth to question the phoenix, but Luffy beat him to it.

"So it's a mystery bird, shishishi," giggled Luffy. "Do you poo-" Kitsune slapped a hand over Luffy's uncensored mouth.

"Forgive my little brother, First Commander. He still has troubles with his manners," mumbled Kitsune, his face flushed in embarrassment on behalf of his bumbling baby brother. Luffy, on the other hand, tried to squirm free and complete his thought. "Not the time to ever ask those kind of questions, Anchor," Kitsune hissed to Luffy. The younger raven immediately stopped at the sight of glowing irises.

An angry Kit was not someone to be pressed.

"It's not that big of deal - yoi. Brats will be brats," replied Marco mildly. Sharp avian-enhanced eyes did not miss the predatory and unnatural light, but he knew better to draw attention to it. "Mythical Zoans are pretty rare, rarer than Logia. So I guess we are a kind of mystery. So where are your other brothers this day?"

Kitsune just sighed and released Luffy. "Not a clue. Thatch took Ace away on some adventure involving eggs, glitter, and the third division's laundry. I think Sabo ran over to Namur to discuss some things on fishman politics and international relationships, or something of that nature. So, it's just the Anchor and I," Kit responded with a heavy sigh. The middle brothers sure can make a brother feel lonely.

"The third division…best warn Jozu then – yoi. Anchor?"

"Ah, old nickname of Luffy. A pirate he really admired gave it to him since Luffy has always been hopeless in the water," Kitsune explained with a chuckle and a reminiscent look.

"I see – yoi," Marco remarked. "Well, why don't you two find something to do to amuse yourselves like those two? You might also want to rethink about swimming lessons if you want to stay close to the edge of the ship."

"No thanks. Luffy has never improved in his swimming skills in the many, many attempts to teach him otherwise, and I don't think any amount of swimming lessons will change that. As for me…I don't want to learn," Kitsune announced, not giving an inch. He had his devil fruit for as long as he could remember, so he never knew what it was like to not almost drown or not associate a lot of water with exhaustion.

"Nothing on this ship is really all that entertaining honestly," Kit stated with a shrug.

Luffy's owl eyes glinted with mischief and he gave a shishishi before adding, "I think this view is awesome though!"

Marco tilted his head before addressing the youngest kid. "What makes this view so special?"

"Because my special seat lets me see both the sky and sea. I love to see the endless blueness of it. Don't you think that's great?"

Kit smiled down at this little brother. Surprisingly, the usually bored looking man also smiled openly at Luffy.

"Why don't you kids go see Pops –that is the captain? I'm sure he will be more than please to tell you guys a story or two," suggested the phoenix. Kitsune's smile faded just a touch, but Luffy's puppy dog look cinched his decision.

Marco led the two brothers over to the old man's chair where they will spend the better of the whole day and days afterwards simply listening to the old man's stories and adventures. The Strongest Pirate even let Luffy sit on his huge lap. Kit humored the old man and usually climbed up on the chair as well.

Both loved the storytelling sessions. Luffy loved them for how similar they were to the stories Shanks used to tell to Luffy. Kitsune liked the stories for the gentle inflections and gentleness when speaking of the great man's family and their adventures, good and bad. Whitebeard really lived a life without regrets.

With the boys so entertained, they did not realize the impending time of parting until the next island shown on the horizon.