Day 7- From the darkness

(Begin)

Marco: Hey Luffy!

Luffy: Marco!

Marco: Can you help me again today?

Luffy: Didn't you already get your revenge? I don't think Ace could take anymore of yesterday. He's still going on about "perverted men who are too old for innocent little girls", and "rabid fan girls with cold hearts and poor taste", and not allowing me out of his sight so I wouldn't run off to join the "corrupt government that runs this world that is being swallowed by their own greed."

Marco: That just means I succeeded in putting him through the same amount of torture he put me through. But he's not the one I want to get today. Today's target is Thatch. So what do you say? Are you in or out?

Luffy: (After a moment of thought) I guess. Do you have anything in mind?

Marco: not really… Do you?

Luffy: hmm… I have one or two possibilities.

(In the kitchens)

Thatch: Hey! Has anyone seen my knives? They aren't where I left them. (Looks around for the knives and spots Ace trying to sneak some food) Oi! Don't take food that isn't yours!

Ace: Sorry... I just don't want to eat in the dinning hall today.

Thatch: Huh? Why not?

Ace: (Shivers) Because Marco retaliated yesterday and Luffy has gone traitor.

Thatch: ...Ace? What did they do to you?

Ace: (starts shaking) horrible horrible things, Thatch. I think you might be safe, though. I think Marco went after me because he knows that I was the instigator of Operation MIAB. He got his revenge. Although, I may or may not have told him about the egg you placed under his pillow...

Thatch: (eyes wide) you WHAT?

Ace: I said I~

Thatch: I heard what you said! Why'd you have to go and do that?

Ace: I was sort of trapped and had to grasp at whatever straws I could reach. I'm sorry Thatch. I couldn't find another way out.

Thatch: ... So you threw me in front of the horse to get your own ass out of the fire? If the time ever comes when there is a zombie apocalypse, I'm tripping you.

Ace: Fair enough. (Makes a mental note never to board Thriller Bark with Thatch) Just watch your back. Luffy and Marco know us too well and can easily find the right buttons to push to make us lose our minds.

Thatch: Ok. Now I have to know what they did to you. Come on~ you owe me for telling Marco.

Ace: (Tells the story of what happened the day before). And so now you know why I can't eat in the dinning room.

Thatch: You flat out told Marco I was the one who put the egg under his pillow! Jerk!

Ace: Well what was I supposed to do?

Thatch: Oh I don't know! Maybe offer a different, less harmful and backstabbing piece of information?

Ace: That was most harmless thing I could think of that Marco would accept!

Thatch: Oh, yeah! Harmless to you maybe! Now I'm the one in the line of fire!

Ace: I'm sorry! Just watch your back ok? Who knows what those two are cooking up for you? (Leaves the kitchen with some rolls)

Thatch: HEY! I told you don't take food that isn't yours! (Sighs and looks around and starts muttering to himself) Now where are my knives?

(With Marco and Luffy)

Luffy: Do you think this will be enough?

Marco: I am more after psychological trauma than I am physical harm (adjusts objects a bit)

Luffy: Well this will be interesting. Too bad we can't really watch.

Marco: I'll be asking Pops for detailed descriptions. You could listen in too if you'd like. Do you have everything you'll need?

Luffy: (Nods) Sounds good to me. Let's go (both leave the room).

(With Thatch)

Thatch: (After finding his knives and cooking breakfast) Yo! Ace! I don't see those two in the dinning hall. You can eat in peace on this fine morning.

Ace: I'd like to hear you say that at the end of the day…

Thatch: I wouldn't say that at the end of the day. It'll be evening, or night, depending on how you looked at it.

Ace: You know what I mean. Anyway, thanks for the heads up. I'm gonna go eat now. Care to join?

Thatch: Sure. But if they are actually planning to attack you again today instead of me, and I get the backlash, I'm moving.

Ace: Deal. I really don't think they'll attack me again, though. Luffy doesn't actually want to drive me insane.

Thatch: I suppose… (Sits down) OUCH!

Ace: What?

Thatch: (Now standing and rubbing his tush) Something just pricked me.

Ace. Is that a knife sticking out of your chair?

Thatch: (Looks at the sliver of the knife sticking up out of the seat of his chair, not enough to actually hurt, but certainly enough to cause discomfort, and then looks under the chair at the rest of the knife) Yup. There's a note attached to it, too.

Like a ninja, we strike when you least expect it. Like a hound, we will not relent. Like a real pirate under the name of Whitebeard, we will always pay what is owed. Prepare yourself, Thatch.

Ace: Now you can't blame me for anything that happens today, 'cause they are definitely after you.

Thatch: Because of you.

Ace: So? It's your own fault. You put the egg under his pillow.

Thatch: He wouldn't have known it was me, until you told him!

Ace: He would have figured it out eventually!

Thatch: So~ what do you think they'll do to me?

Ace: Well, you don't have any younger sisters dating someone without telling you, or an old crazy man wanting to enlist you into the marines, or scary fan girls with impossible fantasies. They don't have that kind of fodder for their fire.

Thatch: But what do they have?

Ace: I don't know…

Marco: (from some unseen place) Let the game begin.

(Later)

Thatch: AHH! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP~

Ace: What happened?

Thatch: They- they hid all the beer and a banana peel keeps appearing out of nowhere and tripping me, and I SWEAR it's the same peel, and I dropped something a few minutes ago and so I bent down to pick it up and when I stood back up, THIS! (Points to hair)

Ace: (Looks at the once light-brown hair) Oh come on. Is pink and blue polka dot really that bad? (Trying not to chuckle)

Thatch: YES IT IS! They could have had a little better taste in colors, for one, and two, it isn't the polka dots, it's the fact that they were able to do it so quickly and without my noticing!

Ace: Well did you consider the possibility of your hair being colored before you dropped your item?

Thatch: YES I'M SURE! I saw my reflection in the window and it was normal!

Ace: "Like a ninja, we strike when you least expect it." I think they are having fun with their plans.

Thatch: Have you no sympathy?

Ace: oh I have loads of sympathy. But I'll save my energy and not show it until after the day is done. That way I can show all my sympathy for you at the same time. Until then, you're on your own today like I was yesterday. Don't die!

Thatch: If I do, I'll come back and haunt you.

Ace: Fine by me. I'm glad that you'll stick around even when you're gone.

Thatch: Go die in a fire….

Ace: That's not possible.

Thatch: I know.

Ace: Then why~?

Thatch: I don't know. I'd miss you if you were gone. Who would I make fun of Marco with?

Ace: Aw~ I'd miss you, too.

Thatch: AW FLYING FISH-MONKIES!

Ace: What!

Thatch: They continue….

Ace: How?

Thatch: I don't know! Suddenly you're freckles were all connected! (c'mon. who doesn't want to play connect the dot with freckles? I do it on myself all the time)

Ace: GAH!

Thatch: WILL THERE BE NO END!

Marco and Luffy: (From a hidden place) There will, Thatch, there will. But until then, we'll have our fun in making you go crazy.

(The End)

A/N- Ok there are a few things I would like to point out:

No there is no list put up about making Thatch MAIB

If there was then this would have been up several days ago

I wouldn't have had to rewrite this because I thought the first draft was way too mean…. (cries ) I'm SORRY THATCH! I destroyed the evidence and now those cruel jokes no longer exist. You can rest easy…

Their pranks on Thatch weren't clarified for a reason: I simply couldn't think of things that would faze Thatch other than sheer paranoia…

THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO TOOK THE TIME TO LOOK AT THESE! It makes my heart smile