Thatch was afraid. Now to anyone who knew the headstrong commander of the Whitebeard pirates this would be seen as a very odd occurrence, however if the people who knew said commander also happened to know a certain angry blue turkey they would completely understand his fear.

The plan had been so simple, distract Marco, glue all his furniture to the ceiling of his cabin, leave before anyone caught on and establish an airtight alibi. Sure, suspicions would still have been on him but there'd have been no actual proof! Unfortunately, that plan had fallen to ruin the moment Haruta mentioned pranking in front of Marco.

It had been one day since then and Thatch was afraid. An angry Marco was an unpredictable Marco, and no matter how hard he tried Thatch was sure that anything he thought up to try and counter Marco's revenge would be easily avoided by the angry chicken. Which left him waiting.

The apprehension was almost worse than the prank itself and so it was with a heavy heart that Thatch resigned himself to his fate and decided to go about his day as normal. That was his first mistake.

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Over his many years as the first division commander and "elder brother" of the whitebeard crew Marco had learnt many things about different members of the crew. One of these things was routines.

Due to his zoan form Marco was often compelled by his phoenix side to be up at the crack of dawn, and as such had lots of time to observe the comings and goings of certain siblings. This reason along with a few others was one of the reasons why many of his siblings knew not to risk getting on his bad side.

Not only could Marco reassign chore duty at will, but he was also perfectly willing to use his incredibly detailed knowledge of people's little habits and routines to torment them until they prostrated themselves before him begging him for forgiveness.

It had only gone that far twice in the history of the Whitebeard pirates and each time had left the pirates of the crew incredibly unwilling to upset the first division commander. Of course, dumbasses like Thatch still performed pranks on a regular basis, even if he usually took care not to push too far.

Unfortunately for Thatch the whole mess with Teach was not only stressful on the crew but had required a shuffling of paperwork from the second division gifting Marco with a whole stack of new paperwork. Paperwork which was currently stuck in the desk Thatch had glued to the ceiling.

It didn't help that Marco still owed Thatch payback for helping Ace with his "randomly exploding pigeon" prank as well as the eggs in his bed. This meant war.

And so it was that Marco started his revenge, evil laughter ringing out throughout his room.

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Thatch's hair was bubble-gum pink, not only was it pink but it was styled in the most hideous mullet Ace had ever seen in his life.

The entire dining hall stopped whatever they had been doing presently to stare at the commander in a silent shock, before Ace then did what any good friend would do in that situation and burst into laughter. The rest of the dining hall proceeded to join in.

"What the hell happened to you commander?" Thatch glared at the member of his division who had finally managed to ask the question between gasps of laughter, before his glare turned to resignation and a hint of horror "Marco."

Suddenly the hall was silent, and the older members of the crew started shuffling away from Thatch in fear, as if he had suddenly acquired an infectious disease. One of the pirates turned to Thatch a concerned yet slightly hopeful expression on his face "Is this the end of it?"

Thatch shook his head mournfully "This is just the beginning." The hope on the crewmembers face promptly died and was replaced with a sorrowful look as he clasped Thatch's shoulder and gave him a grave nod "I'll pray for you brother."

Ace watched these proceedings with undisguised curiosity and confusion before he eventually gave up on guessing what was going on and turned to Izou. The other man was barely holding back from bursting out into laughter as he watched the reactions of the other pirates "I don't understand, why's everyone so afraid?"

Izou grinned but there were far too many teeth to call it anything other than sadistic "Oh you poor naive soul, still unaware of the crews unspoken rules." Ace narrowed his eyes and glared at Izou "And what does that have to do with Marco pranking Thatch?"

Izou's grin widened "Simple, there are three main unspoken rules on the crew that almost everyone maintains. First no-one is judged by their past or their bloodline, no matter what."

Ace couldn't quite help the wistful yet disbelieving look that appeared on his face upon hearing that. Afterall no matter what anyone said no-one would accept him after they found out who's blood ran through his veins. Well except his brothers, but that was a whole different story. He had been told he deserved to die too many times to believe otherwise.

Noting the strange expression on Ace's face Izou decided to let him have his privacy for now and pretended not to have noticed anything "second rule is that no-one is to sneak Pops sake in front of the nurses and finally," At this point Izou paused and pointed to Thatch "Never piss of Marco enough that a simple prank doesn't serve as retribution because that's when things get nasty."

Ace looked at Thatch's tense shoulders and the wary look in his eyes then turned back to Izou "So I take it this has happened before?" Izou continued to smile "Only twice actually, the first time wasn't actually Thatch. You can usually tell when it gets that bad because that's when Marco starts small."

Ace's eyes widened as he motioned to Thatch's mullet "That's starting small?" Izou gave a sagely nod "Yes, after all if Marco decides to take revenge he usually pulls one large prank that serves as retribution and once it's done that's that. For example last time Thatch pushed Marco too far he woke up, tied up naked in the rigging in a series of very intricate bondage knots."

Ace's eyes widened in shock as Izou paused to take a small sip of the tea he had in front of him "Starting small means that Marco is preparing to increase the level of his pranks over the next few days until Thatch gives a sincere apology."

Ace looked at him in confusion "In that case why doesn't Thatch just apologise now?" Izou snorted "Marco won't let him. Thatch will be able to find Marco precisely when Marco allows him to, and not a moment before. And that's when he'll fall to his knees and apologise" Ace let out a low whistle "Harsh."

Izou shrugged "True but not undeserved. And it serves as a good deterrent for the crew's pranksters not to go too far and besides," a dark look of satisfaction entered Izou's eyes "It's usually hilarious to watch. Marco can be creative when he wants to be."

Ace grinned "So sit back and enjoy the madness." Izou raised his tea to Ace as if in salute "I knew I liked you for some reason." Ace laughed and watched as Thatch grew steadily more nervous about the worrying new friendship between his boyfriend and his new friend. Ace grinned at the expression on the chef's face. This was going to be great.

Several hours later and it was the end of the day. So far Marco had managed to tie-die every single one of Thatch's clothes a hideous mix between salmon pink and puke green. Had somehow arranged a co-ordinated attack of what must have been every sea bird in a ten mile radius and replaced all the man's shoes with fish.

Not that anyone had caught him in the act, or even had any evidence linking him back to the crime.

Ace was finding the whole thing hilarious and had even ended up helping Haruta arrange a betting table where crewmembers could place a bet on what they thought Marco would do next. As such no-one had gotten it right yet and Haruta said he felt confident that no-one would be able to guess Marco's thought process, except Whitebeard who was merely watching as a highly amused spectator, allowing the two to split the earnings.

So, it was in very high spirits that Ace walked back to his room to sleep looking forward to what pranks the next day would hold. Ace was just about to sit on his bed when he heard a quiet knock on his door, opening the door Ace was met with the sight of a grinning Marco.

"What's up birdy?" Marco smiled a slight fondness in his eyes "Nothing much brat, but I wanted to ask if you could keep Thatch away from the crow's nest tomorrow morning?"

Ace smirked in amusement "I could but what's in it for me?" Marco's grin turned evil "Immunity from the retribution I planned for your involvement in the egg prank."

Ace paled, he had definitely seen what Marco was capable of this past day and he did not want to be on the receiving end of his vengeance. "Deal." Marco's grin widened "Good doing business with you, now if you'll excuse me I have pranks to plan."

Ace let out a small laugh and a soft smile "I'll leave you to it then. Night Birdy." Marco's smile softened, and he placed a quick kiss on Ace's forehead "Night Ace." Smirking at the bright red blush that had appeared on the younger man's face Marco walked off whistling cheerfully as he left. Apparently the excessive pranking had done wonders for the Phoenix's stress levels.

Closing the door and going back to bed Ace couldn't help the small smile that graced his lips. Ace couldn't deny that he liked Marco and though he wasn't sure where this attraction would lead he was more than willing to enjoy the moment. Still smiling Ace fell asleep unaware of the storm raging on the horizon.

Authors note

Hi people, so I managed to finish writing up this chapter early and I'm not gonna lie I had way too much fun writing the crews reactions to Marco's pranks! I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any suggestions for more pranks please comment or pm me! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!