A Kid Again

Chapter 7 Marco's Day Off

"You know I'm starting to feel sorry for Marco." Izou said as he watched the man try and read a book with Luffy on his back.

The small boy had decided that Marco was his newest friend and wanted his attention at all times. Ace just watched and would mess with Marco every now and then just to see the man react to what was said. Luffy clinged onto Marco a lot and would use him as a pillow or bed whenever he was tired which pissed of Hancock to no end.

"Yeah but it can't be helped that he knows how to take care of them." Vista said and the man smiled knowing that it was true. "Though it is questionable on how Marco knows how to handle kids."

"That is a good point." Izou said as Marco looked at Luffy who had grabbed his hair.


"Don't pull on it." the blonde said as he grabbed Luffy and placed the hyper active boy in front of him. "Stay there and don't do anything."

"HAI!" Luffy said happily as he began to play with his feet like a little kid. "Marco?"

"What?" Marco asked slightly annoyed at the disturbance already.

"I'm bored~!" Luffy said leaning back and looking up at Marco as he had his head in the pirate's lap.

"Then go bother your brother." Marco said trying not to yell at the boy.

"Ace had a fit." Luffy said indicating the sleeping boy who had been placed by the mast so that nobody accidently stepped on him.

"That was ten minutes ago." Marco said sweat dropping again.

"Some can last for a few hours." Luffy said and Marco looked at the boy who was smiling up at him.

"Then bother somebody else." Marco said trying to forget about the small boy.

"But nobody else will play with me." Luffy said and Marco sighed.

"What about Hancock?" he offered.

"She's scary." Luffy said and Marco chuckled knowing what the boy meant.

"Your gramps?" Marco offered and Luffy turned and sat on Marco completely.

"Gee-chan is even scarier." Luffy said and Marco sighed and placed his book down.

"Fine how about we play a game?" he offered and Luffy looked at him happily. "We'll play hide-n-seek. You hide and I'll find you."

"YAY!" Luffy cheered and he ran to hide somewhere on the ship and Marco went back to his book.

"MARCO!" Izou said and the blonde looked at the cross dresser.

"What?" he asked and Izou twitched a bit at Marco's uncaring concern.

"What the hell are you doing?" Izou asked and Marco leaned against the railing and continued to read his book.

"I call it getting at least two hours of peace." Marco said before glancing at Ace who still hadn't woken up yet. "Or maybe more."

"That's mean." Haruta said and Marco shrugged.

"You want to play with him?" he offered and Haruta flinched before looking away. "Exactly."

"You still don't have to be mean to him. He's only seven." Vista said and Marco shrugged once again.

"Ace is meaner to him then me and I don't see any problem with it." Marco said and Izou became slightly annoyed.

"You're acting as if you know how to take care of them better than we do." He said and Marco grinned as he got a plan.

"Okay, you think you can handle both of them?" he asked and the three commanders nodded their heads. "Okay, when we of on the island, I'll be one of the helpers and you three have to watch them."

"And if we win we get to use those pictures that the nurses took however way we want." Izou said and Marco smiled.

"But if I win, you have to destroy every single one." Marco said and the commander nodded his head.


"Seriously, how hard could watching a couple of kids be?" Izou asked as he looked at Ace who had finally woken up.

"Ah, where's Luffy?" he asked as he walked up to them.

"Still hiding." Haruta said and Ace looked around before walking to a barrel and tipping it over revealing a sleeping Luffy.

"I thought he was kinda quiet." Vista said as Ace looked at the sleeping boy before hitting him in the head.

"Wha'd I miss?" Luffy asked sitting up and looking around.

"Why were you hiding?" Ace asked his little brother and Luffy looked around before finally remembering.

"Marco and I were playing hide-n-seek." Luffy said and Ace raised an eyebrow before looking around and noting that Marco wasn't there.

"Marco left with everyone else to figure out how to cure you guys so we're stuck watching you." Izou said and the two brothers looked at them before a smile grew on their faces.


"I'm hungry~!" Luffy said and Izou happily denied him to eat. "BUT I'M HUNGRY~!"

"I said no." Izou said and Luffy began to flail about before the small boy hit him with his pole. "Give me that!"

"Ace Okama hit me!" the small boy said and Izou flinched.

"Who the hell are you calling an Okama and don't cry to your brother." Izou said giving the small boy a noogie.

Luffy got out of Izou's grip and ran to the railing before jumping on it and turning around. Izou became pissed as Luffy stuck his tongue out at him and started to jump around before running as Izou ran after him. Ace laughed at the man's trouble at keeping his brother at bay while he had fun with Vista.

The small boy had taken his hat and was currently sitting on the mast while Haruta tried her hardest to prevent him from slicing at the boy. ace looked at him with a smug grin before dropping the hat and letting the wind blow it across the ship where Luffy was currently dodging Izou's attempt at to catch him. Luffy jumped over the cross dresser and successfully landed on his feet but the hat came at him and surprised him.

Luffy fell backwards and Ace's eyes widened as his brother fell into the ocean before he jumped off of the mast and into the ocean. Izou looked at the spot where the brown eyed boy disappeared and looked up when he heard another splash in the water. Haruta and Vista ran over to the railing and Izou jumped over as the two brothers emerged out of the water.

Luffy clung onto his brother as Ace began to quickly dry his hair, ignoring his own for Luffy's lips had begun to turn blue. Izou threw a towel onto Ace who ignored it as he continued to get Luffy dry even when Haruta began to dry his hair. When the girl removed the towel she didn't fail to notice the tinge of red on the two boys' cheeks and she put her hands to their heads.

"You two have a fever." She said and Ace looked at her before turning to his brother who had fallen asleep.

"AH LUFFY!" he said trying to wake his brother up before he began to sway a bit.

"ACE!"


"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN THAT THEY'RE SICK!" Marco asked the three commanders who didn't want to look at them.

"Luffy fell into the water and Ace went after them and they got sick because of it." Izou said and the nurses went to look at the two boys.

"It's only a cold but how did they fall?" one nurse asked and the three commanders looked at each other.

"Marco I give, I don't know how the hell you are able to handle them." Izou said and the man frowned. "But why didn't Ace's brother come up automatically after he fell of the railing?"

"Luffy has a devil fruit power." Marco said and the commanders as well as the rest of the crew looked at him. "He said that he had them for a few months before they knew what had actually happened to them."

"That would explain why Ace jumped in right after his brother." Haruta said. "Though he didn't have to jump from the top of the mast."

"He jumped from the top of the mast?" Marco asked and the woman nodded. "I thought I told him to stop doing that?"

"Wait he does that all the time!" Izou asked and Marco nodded.

"Luffy has a tendency to hide in barrels and he likes to jump around a lot as well as climb things. Ace prefers to climb and sneak up on people as well as go to high places and do what he calls 'death from above'." The man said and the three commanders looked at him as if they wanted to kill him.

"You couldn't have told us this before we made the deal to watch them?" Vista asked and Marco smiled at him.

"But that would ruin all of the fun of this bet." He said walking away.

"You know now that I think about it, Marco was the one most worried about them being sick." One nurse said and the crew looked at the back of the man before smiling.

"Well we still don't know everything about him." Izou said remembering how Marco pretty much just randomly appeared into the crew and rose in the ranks.

"Or he just happens to like the two of them." Haruta said and the nurses giggled. "But we have to keep our end of the deal."

"What end?" the nurse who had treated Ace and Luffy asked.

"We have to get rid of any pictures of him that were taken." Izou said and the nurses' faces dropped.

"But they were so cute together." They complained.


DONE! I would have updated this earlier but I forgot that I had to go to my friend's sweet sixteen and that kinda explains all. I was dead when I got back so I had no time to update anything. Ah i love Marco and how he cared about Ace and Luffy getting sick. I had a feeling something like this was going to happen. I have to think about how they can change back and what the guys do on the island. Hope you liked^^