Keep your porn stash away from your kiddies. I mean it.

Chapter 9: Marco's Nightmare

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Pops' words were absolute. You disobeyed him, you knew you would be in total deep shit.

At first, Thatch stated that it would be amusing to take care Marco as his personal babysitter. At least, he could use it for blackmail stuff once Marco turned back into adult. But soon he knew he would be in total deep shit once the sky darkened all of the sudden and the first rumble of another Grand Line storm fell to the sea. Yeah. They were just embarked about fifteen minutes before from Kyoukajima, and the waves were already half as high as one of Pops' tsunami.

It was Hell of rain cats and dogs.

"It's a bad omen", Kingdew, appeared out of nowhere, stated firmly. Thatch made the pansiest squeal seeing the other Commander stood by his side, as he tried to stand straight on the deck by hugging tight on the main mast.

"Even the sky does not approve us to break Marco's curse", the Eleventh Division Commander continued, and left.

Thatch cursed in the longest curse word he knew like a true sailor. He always hated rain. Correction, he always fuckin despise the rain. Rain made his hair damp —which was already in mess since he woke up in the morning. He didn't even get the chance to fix it into his usual pompadour style —resulted from waking up three hours late.

A very strong wave swept the deck, made him only tightened his grip to the mast. The salty seawater weakened him instantly —just in time, he remembered what the consequences as a Devil Fruit user. Just, damn it. Why did he choose to be up here instead in his own dry, sheltered cabin?

Loud, ear-splitting rumble woke little Marco up from his deep sleep. He jolted, the entire of his body convulsed. The room he was sleeping at was like in the world of black and white for the split-second as another lightning fell down from the sky. Instantly, he curled like a ball on his bed, clasping his ears tight and closed his eyes.

Scary.

Storm was scary. Thunder was scary. He was afraid the loud noise would awaken the monster under his bed.

Before, he would crawl into his Ma or Da's room, seeking protection from the monster under his bed. But no, he couldn't. Ma and Da weren't here. They threw him away, abandoned him because he had this weird ability. The Devil Fruit ability. Ma and Da were scared to him because he was the monster itself.

Whimpering, the little boy crawled down of his bed, wrapping himself entirely with the blanket. Carefully, he tiptoed out of his room. Silently. He didn't want to wake up the monster under his bed. The monster was always be there, wherever he was. Scary creeper waiting to eat him, that monster.

The ship swayed really hard, as if a monster wanted to turn the ship upside down. No no, how if that was possible? Would be the ship really turned upside down? He was scared, really scared. But who would give him that protection now? Thatch —his friend Thatch— wasn't here too.

Ace.

That big brother Ace could help him. He didn't know why, but he felt safe around Ace. Ace and his warm hand and lopsided grin. Ace was gentle. Ace was warm. Marco wanted that warmth now. He needed it. And dunno why, he also thought that Ace was strong —he didn't know where he got that impression. But if Ace was really strong, would he protect him if he asked?

He had decided.

The rain was a serious disaster.

It started with a faint creaking sound on the wall. Ace hadn't notice it if he wasn't lying on his bed, daydreaming. Don't ask what kind of thing he was daydreaming at. Anyway, as the storm got even stronger, the creaking sounds were getting even worrisome.

He knew Moby Dick was an old ship. Really old —Marco, the previous Marco and not the child one, had said that Moby Dick had served Whitebeard for decades already. But routine checkups had been held to keep their house sailin' steady. They had best carpenters under the Division 13, under Atmos' care. They also hired someone from the best shipyard in the world to repair it annually.

But fuck, this storm was just fuckin disaster.

Ace cursed on the top of his lungs, including the entire inhabitants of a zoo on it, when the screws spewed from the porthole to everywhere in the speed equal to gatling gun. Then the creaking noise became even louder and just in time, as Ace shuffled his ass from his bunk, the porthole bursted —carrying inside the gallons of sea water.

It was. Fuckin. A MESS.

Not wasting any seconds, he skidded out of his room, closed the door, and locking it securely to prevent the water flooding the entire hallway.

It seemed that he hadn't given any time to recover from his utter shock —as he felt something, someone, tackling him on the waist. Ace cursed real loud just when a loud thunder crashing outside —thanks God. Just when he regained balance, he came to recognize who on Mother Sea's ocean dared to do this.

It was Marco. The little Marco.

"H- hey Little Guy", Ace quipped, hands trying to pry Marco off of him. But no result —Marco clung incredibly tight it was as if he got superglued on him.

Another thunder crashed. Just Ace got calmed himself, he realized that Marco was shivering.

No way…

Marco… was scared of storm?

He just wanted to laugh real loud by thinking about it himself. It was kinda weird to compare the adult form of Marco and his younger form —toddler form. It was as if both were completely different person. Ace shook his head hard —that was people called growth right? Anyway, now…

He needed someone from Division 13 to fix his porthole —else the damage would be bigger once the water filled inside Ace's room completely and flooded into the entire Commanders' deck. The Commanders' deck placed on the second deck and quite far from the normal water level, though he couldn't guarantee that the place was safe because the waves outside could even swallow Moby Dick itself entirely.

On the other hand, he couldn't leave Marco all by himself.

Just in time, Thatch hurtled into the Commanders' deck, also wet from top to toes. His hair was a mess and he looked pissed, really pissed. In the other time, Ace would take his leave peacefully without even throwing a joke including about bad hair day. But now he couldn't feel anything else but relieved.

"Thank Sweet Mother Sea, Thatch!" the teen cheered. He couldn't move freely —not with Marco leg-locking him securely.

"Can you look after Marco while me looking for someone from repair team? The porthole on my room was broken…" Ace pleaded. Thatch threw him murderous glare, but his eyes softened when he caught Marco on his sight.

Thatch huffed.

"Sure. Let me", he crouched next to Marco, offering his hands so Marco could release his deadly grip from Ace's waist.

But Marco only tightened his clutch and buried his face even deeper onto Ace's black cargo shorts.

Ace gulped audibly seeing veins popped on Thatch's forehead.

"O-Oi, Marco… Listen, I have to do something. So can you let me…" the teen ended his sentence in low tone, as he saw Marco shook his head. "…go."

Thatch used to tell him, that his darkness was gravity —sucking everything inside like a supermassive black hole on the center of the galaxy. Suddenly, Ace's nape shivered as he felt the temperature on the hallway dropped few degrees, thinking if Thatch could suck in the heat on the hallway too.

The tense broke when Thatch huffed again and stood up. He rustled his own hair then Marco's hair. Ace stared at him, shocked.

"I'll call someone from Atmos' team. You take care of Marco", the Fourth Division Commander said, grinned lopsidedly. Ace grinned too.

"Hey, thanks", the teen commented. But before Thatch left, Ace asked. "Hey, can I sleep in your room?"

"Ace, I know we're close. But not that close—" Thatch turned his head, grinned lewdly —faked it, Ace guessed. Thatch he'd knew was as straight as a flagpole.

"Just for a moment, till my room is done", Ace smacked Thatch's shoulder and jeered, then added dramatically. "You're my last hope, because… you know…"

"Another commanders' room are prohibited for you to enter", Thatch snapped. Ace laughed.

"Yeah. Booby traps. Anti-Ace devices."

"Don't forget kairoseki door."

"Vista and Haruta has it on their door. Sicko bastards", Ace snorted.

"Really? That our Vista?" Thatch laughed. "Last time I know he has electricity running on his doorknob."

"That's one year ago, man. I know", Ace said abruptly, wiping tears off of his eyes coming from laughing too much.

"We should form a tag team for the sake of pranks, buddy", Thatch smacked Ace's back before he turned on his heel and left. Ace stared still on his back for a moment.

He picked up Marco off of his feet —that because it happened swiftly, Marco couldn't do anything to raise up his defense. The little boy yelped, still scared. But apparently, Ace could see that he was calmed.

"I don't know you're a scaredy-cat", the teen sneered, grinning wide.

Pink shades of blush crept up the little boy's puffy cheeks.

"You don't know how scary the monster under the bed!" Marco snapped back.

"Oh, really? How scary it was then?" Ace carried the boy still as he walked carefully to Thatch's room, three doors away. The ship was still swaying like mad. It seemed that the storm hadn't show any sign to calm anytime soon.

"Well, it's black. All black", the boy started. "It looks like lizards, but bigger. And the tail's longer. The eyes are red. And when you're looking away, it'll creep behind you and eat you!"

That sounded like dinosaurs in Ace's head.

"Hmm, but I won't let something that big creeping behind me to eat me", Ace commented as he twisted Thatch's doorknob and kicked it open.

"You won't know. It'll be really, reeeaaally silent", Marco continued, looking sure himself. "When you know it", he whispered. "… it's already too late."

Ace laid Marco on the bed then lying just next the boy. The bunk was just about on the same size with Ace's own, but messier. Thatch, apparently, hadn't think to clean it sometimes. Ace picked few pillows for him and the little boy, before covering both of them with the white, fluffy blanket.

"Yeah. But now, you're safe. No monster creeping around on this ship. You know the captain of this ship? That big guy with white moustache?" The little boy nodded. Ace grinned, continued. "He's scarier than the monster."

"Really?" Marco's eyes rounded.

"Yeah, really. I saw it myself, he shooed the monsters outta this ship! Those monsters were running their asses off, you know!"

Half-lie. Actually, Pops was the monster himself. But the mental image made Ace barely holding his laugh. Maybe few of his ribs just cracked.

"Really? Really really really?" the little boy was still at it. Ace nodded again, trying to look serious.

"Whoa…"

"Now, because we're safe here, do you want to sleep or not?" the teen patted the boy's head. He didn't want to take responsibility if the boy soiled his own pants from the excitement. The boy smiled at him, then flopped on the bed happily.

"Okay…"

The storm hadn't calmed yet. But few minutes with Ace giving the boy constant patting on his back and letting the boy to nuzzle like a kitten, the boy was already sleeping like a log. Ace smiled gently while fixing the blanket over the boy. It sure brought him back into his childhood memories, with Luffy clinging on him like this.

Luffy… Hopes you're fine now.

When Marco woke up in the morning, the room was already empty.

Ace had already gone, and the ship had stopped swaying wildly. Nice, warm sea breeze entered the room through the opened porthole, along with the caws of the seagulls. The sea was calm. The ship rocked steadily by the waves, left and right, repeatedly.

Marco stretched his arms and yawned real wide. He felt relaxed… really relaxed. And hungry. Though that could be solved later when he got his breakfast. Just when he was about to crawl out of his blanket, his hand touched something under the pillow.

He blinked.

It was something… hard, and square. And there were three of four of it. Out of curiosity, he pulled them all out.

Those were books.

Marco couldn't read, nobody taught him to read before. But the books had colorful cover, so he thought it would be okay for him to see. He pulled one book and opened it, flipping the page curiously. But soon, he lost interest. What kind of book are these, he thought. They had girls on every pages of it —girls in very short dress, some of them weren't wearing anything. Eww. Who would buy books about girls, anyway?

Wait.

Girls had cooties. So this book… should be full of cooties, right?

The thought made the little boy paled. A book of cooties… under his pillow. So the monster under the bed weren't gone just as he thought. Yeah, who would do such nasty thing to him, aside from the monster under the bed? The white-moustache ossan hadn't kick the monster under the bed off of his ship.

Screaming his lungs out, Marco ran out of the room, seeking for protection from Ace.

A/N: Ah, Thatch. You're such a bad nanny. Keeping porns under your pillow is a big no no, especially when your baby brother staying over.

I can't believe I got 9 reviews from last chapter... ;w; Thank you very much for all of your support, but I can't reply one by one because my computer internet connection is a bit retarded. So I have to upload by phone oTL I think I'm gonna reply each of your reviews here.

Trafalgar Riley: Baby!Marco is super cute. But baby!bird!Marco is extra super cute XD /lolwords

Moonlight Calls: AAAAAAAAAA Yeah, I know, I made a mistake ;A; Changed it to 'big brother' already oTL Thank you for telling me ;w; Umm in my headcanon, Thatch and Marco are the first to join WB. Yeah, they're really old... Jozu is younger, but Vista is older. Headcanons /drylaughs

Rell: Little kids are scary. In one second you're playing nice with them, in other seconds they're attacking you XD

Hi Hikari No Kaze: Ummm... On the second thought, I don't want a betareader because I'm a spontaneous person. Like… suddenly I have thought 'I'm gonna update today', so I write. If you get what I mean… Uhh, sorry ^^;a

BehindBlueSky: My writer's block usually makes me to write something long but pointless and when I re-read it again, it makes me think 'wtf is this'. Haha... Anyway yeah, you may brushie brushie Marco. Just be careful, he's gonna peck your eyes out if he doesn't feel like it :p

Anyway happy new year! And happy birthday Ace and Oda-sensei!