hey guys! Guess what?!

I LIVE!

lol...Disney movie reference! love those!

anyways I made it back from the camping trip, yay! let me just say...sleeping on the ground fuckin' hurts like a bitch! but its amazing how...uh...acclimated the human body can become to such conditions...after the first night, I was much better off with sleeping on the ground...all I'm gonna say for the "next" trip is that it wont be without either a cot or a air mattress cuz owwww my poor body...lol

so here is the next chapter...took a while to edit, and I'm super sorry about that! looking back I realize I should have had this one edited BEFORE I left so that I could have posted it yesterday or something...ALSO YOU GUYS WILL FINALLY HEAR WHAT HER SECRET IS :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

To all those who've joined the story, hello! I am sooooo excited to see you like this story! I left for the camp trip at 27 and now I'm home and there's 34 of ya'll?! wow! thanks :D :D

ANYWAYS...enjoy!

Chapter 16

We decided to camp there for the night, it was an earlier pit stop than what Vivi had originally mapped out for us, but thanks to the guys we had plenty of food left in way of the weird Sandora dragon lizard pair that had tried to ambush the Captain and the pervert camel. And thanks to Will's Storage Box, we still had plenty of water to be shared between the nine of us.

Lashes had told Chopper that he would be fine to go without water until we reached Yuba because he'd drank his fill back in Katorea.

I didn't bother asking how he'd crossed the river.

It wasn't worth the headache.

The campfire stories of everyone's adventures from before I joined the crew was a great way to get to know everyone.

Ace's stories ended up being a favorite though, which shouldn't come as a surprise since all of us hadn't been there for those stories.

His story of a brave little girl who wanted nothing more than to sail with him as a brave little kunoichi was adorable and had Luffy smiling fondly as he pressed his hat further down on his head.

Luffy laughed the longest when Will got Ace to admit he'd tried to assassinate Whitebeard for one hundred consecutive days straight, before joining their crew. Ace's face had flushed beet red at that and it had led to another wrestling match between the brothers that made everyone else laugh.

After everyone had gone to bed, except Will and I who had volunteered for tonight's first watch, I walked up to the top of the rocks so we could talk without risk of anyone over hearing us.

Once we were settled, he asked me, "So, I'm guessing you DO have an idea for why the heat was bothering you worse than it used to?"

His face was emotionless, and I tried not to be bothered by seeing that, but it was hard to look at his face, and compare it to the boy I remembered. Damn, he really does look almost exactly like dad! I couldn't help but think as I internally squirmed, slightly uncomfortable as I quietly admit to him the start of it all.

"About two years ago, I started having pain in my legs every time I got into a bathtub."

He inhaled sharply, face showing his confusion for the relevance to my segue but didn't say anything, allowing me to finish.

"I didn't go swimming very often. It wasn't well known among the marines who saved me that I was half merfolk, and I wanted to keep it that way. The only ones who knew, was the Captain, his second in command, who had been my friend and roommate for most of these years, and the doctors. And when I did go swimming, I never allowed myself to be fully dunked."

His eyebrows furrowed as I could see he was starting to put the pieces together but hasn't come to any kind of conclusion.

So, into the silence, I whispered out...

"I'm like mom, Will. I have a tail."

His mouth dropped open and I could see the disbelief in his eyes, he was opening and closing his mouth, trying to form something to say. Seeing how he couldn't find anything to say, I explained a bit more, feeling a little awkward now.

"I have to be completely underwater before my legs turn into my tail, but once they do, it'll stay until I pull out of the water and dry off. It's painful to try to force the change between the two."

Neal ruffled his feathers and turned his head about to scan the desert, which was what we were supposed to be doing, before turning back to listen as I continued sadly, "I'm not a clownfish like mom was though. I'm something that is silver with orange, black and white splotches. I'm not sure what type of merfolk I am."

I almost started to worry about him, because it didn't look like he'd breathed at all since I'd shared my secret. I reached out to shake him on the shoulder, but instead he brought himself backwards so that he was lying on the rocks face to the sky.

His face was astonished as he said quietly, "Do you know how insane that is? If people found out…"

I nodded, "I know, that's why I haven't told anyone before. The only other people who know are Ol'Man Crocus back at the Twin Capes, and Tashigi because she was there with me when I first formed my tail."

Sitting up, he asked me, "how...?" and I gathered that he was asking how it happened that first time. I smiled in fond remembrance.

"Tashigi had just been promoted, and we wanted to do something fun. We went bar hopping, and I got totally smashed." My face flamed up a little in embarrassment, as I thought of my behavior that night...god was I a flirty mess!

He grinned, trying to imagine his rigid sister getting drunk but he just couldn't picture it. "Don't give me that face! I can have fun too you know!" I smacked him in the arm as I said that when I saw his confused disbelief face.

"It was the first time I'd had alcohol and yeah I got drunk. We went skinny dipping and"

His face went green and he raised a hand my way, saying, "I don't wanna hear about my big sister skinny dipping! Jeez Wisp!"

I laughed as I said, "Well you asked how! Like I said, we were drunk and because the alcohol was making us feel hot, I had the bright idea that we should go swimming! It was Tashi's 'Great Idea' to go 'all natural' since we didn't have our swimming suits, okay! God William, it's not like this is a sex conquest story!" I huffed and crossed my arms in annoyance, He has been acting all mature this entire time and there he goes acting like a prepubescent boy! Ugh…

His face went an interesting shade of prudish purple and he started coughing into his fist. Neal hopped off his perch from the small rock near by and hopped up to sit on my crossed knees and was chortling in his unique bird way. It sounded like a rolling coos mixed with what I swore was a perfect imitation to Will's laugh.

"What's so funny Neal?" Will asked defensively.

Neal gained control of his laugh and said, "I always laugh when people talk about sex in front of you. Your face always gets so" he breaks off into more chortles as Will's face turns even more purple.

"Ohhhhhhkay…..so what, he's a virgin or something?" I joked, but seeing Will's blush spread up to his ears, Neal starts flapping his wings and is almost laying in my lap due to laughing so hard. "Huh...wow, he's been traveling with one of the largest and strongest crews in the world and he's never managed to get laid….poor baby brother…" I mused to myself.

I'd caught on that I was speaking out loud from his blush getting worse and worse, but it was too much fun to tease him. Now his blush was clearly going down his neck and into his chest, only hidden by his clothes.

Ace soon found us that way, Neal laughing in hysterics in my lap, Will, whose face is flushed so dark that he's nearly pure purple now, trying to imitate a turtle in ducking his head down into his shirt collar while hiding his face with his hands, and I'm just grinning away. One dark brow rose to the sky and he asked us calmly, "what happened here?"

"I just found out my baby brother is a virgin," I look Ace up and down suggestively as I teased FireFist, "What, none of you guys could find him a lady friend to teach him the birds and bees while he was with you all?"

Ace's face flushes a bright red and I could see wisps of flame starting to show across his shoulders as his embarrassment grew.

My jaw dropped in surprise, as I thought in mock horror, No way...don't tell me that Ace is a prude too!

Neal, who had only just managed to get his laughter together, began all over again at the sight of Ace's literally "flaming" face as he flushed. awe, his freckles are practically glowing from the flames! that is just toooo damn cute! I internally squeal.

Will was now hunched over, hiding his face behind not only his hands but his knees, which he'd pulled up to his face as well, as he rolled on the ground in embarrassed shame.

At that point I couldn't help myself.

I laughed.

"What's so funny?"

Luffy's head had popped up as he hopped up to sit crisscrossed on the ground besides where Ace was standing.

"Hehehe Luffy! Ace! Will! Ahahhahaha Virgins! Phhhhttttahahahahhaa" I gasped out in between my laughter.

Poor Neal was starting to wheeze and hiccup from laughing so hard.

Luffy's head tilts as he looked over at Ace, who's entire face had now caught fire, and Will, who is now rocking back and forth, all while hiding his face.

"What?! Ace! This isn't because of your dad is it?!" Luffy shouted while staring at Ace.

It was like a switch had been flipped for Ace.

Ace's face went from a flaming flush due to embarrassment to white in horror. Then in another split second it had flushed so red as he scowled in rage at his brother, that I stood up unsteadily out of concern that Ace would actually attack my Captain.

"Luffy you dumbass! You know not to mention that bastard. It has nothing to do with him! Whitebeard is the only father I acknowledge, do you hear me?" Ace growled out, putting special emphasis on some very interesting keywords. Words I knew not to dwell over.

Luffy just stood there, not backing down in his statement but not going further with it either. It was a strange middle ground and I knew that unless someone did something soon, then nothing good could come out of it.

We still had a long hike in the desert together come morning.

Will sat up and was staring at the two men in concern, his flush slowly dissipating. He looked over at Ace in confusion and I was glad to see that I wasn't the only one who didn't know what was going on in context to their words before.

Still….as I looked over at Ace and his burning gaze, coupled with the fact that he hadn't been wearing his black flames traveling robe on while we were resting, giving a full frontal view of all those muscles….my libido decided to run away with my mouth for a second.

"Well, DAMN! If looks could kill, then his glare would have had all of us burning, until we were just a puddle of melted body oil and fats to simmer out into a smoking pile of ashes. Unless it's in the bedroom...betcha that glower of his melts a lot of panties..." I thought in a mix of surprise, anxious concern, and morbid appreciation...along with just a touch of sexual frustration. Damn it, I better not be building an attraction for 'bad boys'. Tashigi would never let me live it down!

It was like my unintentional mouth vomit broke the tension that was building between Luffy and Ace as they had continued to stare at each other.

They both looked over at me with differing expressions that had Will trying not to laugh behind a hand at.

Ace's expression was puzzled, whereas Luffy's was part excited and partly worried.

Will was looking a little green once he'd processed what I'd actually said.

They all spoke at once,

"Ace! Can you do that?! Wait! No! Don't burn my crew! The girls need their panties!" (Luffy)

"Bodies don't burn like that!" (Ace)

"EW! Wisp! Don't make me lose my lunch with your gross horror talk!" (Will)

Since they spoke at the same time, there was no way I could actually make heads or tails of that right? Wrong! HA! Thank god for Tashi's bad test anxiety! She used to have me help her with all her drill practices, in this case? Thank god for emergency protocol training to hear more than one shouted report going on at once!

Holding up both hands in a surrender sign, I said, "In order, No Luffy, Ace cant actually burn us with his eyes, although since he's a Logia, he theoretically could if he practiced, which yes would be cool as all hell, as for needing panties? ehhh...that's debatable; Yes, Ace, I know that's not how bodies actually burn, okay? I don't want to know how YOU know this though, probably through battle; Will, I wasn't trying to gross you out, I have a bad habit of thinking out loud, I don't always know when I'm doing it, sorry for nearly making you lose your lunch, that would have been awful because Sanji is an excellent chef, if a giant pervert." I finished in one big exhale, using my hands to motion along with my mini speech.

Ace just nodded at my deductions and looked intrigued by the idea of shooting flaming beams or something from his eyes, the dork, Luffy had stars in his eyes, not gonna guess what had amazed him this time, nope, and Will looked worried for me. Oh well. He'll learn that I don't mean to do it…

"So, now that, that's all settled, is it your turn for night watch or something?" I asked, looking over at Ace, who seemed to be visibly calmer now with the change of topic.

"Yeah, Lu and I got this next shift, so you two should go get some sleep," Ace said as he sat down on the rock that Neal was originally perched on earlier.

Will and I shrugged and headed back down into camp. We grabbed a blanket each and settled down for the night on the only clear space of the campsite that was near the slowly dying fire pit.

It left me facing Will and had my back to Zoro, who was snoring logs while clutching his swords to his chest. Sanji was huddled up with Chopper in the middle, and Usopp on the other side, as they huddled together for warmth. Nami and Vivi were in the sole tent that Will had in his Storage Box, and from the sounds of it, they were both out cold.

A sudden and irrational fear gripped my heart and I grabbed Will's hand tightly.

He looked over to me in surprise and whispered so as not to wake anyone around us, "Wisp? What wrong?"

"You're still going to be here when I wake right? I haven't made this up have I?" my voice was quiet, even for me, but Will was still an excellent lip reader, even after all these years. His eyes softened and his tone came out just as soft as he reassured me.

"Of course I am. I'm only leaving you if someone's having to bury my corpse, Sis. I promise I'm staying with you. No matter what comes in the future," he squeezed my hand tighter as I tried not to cry.

We'd gone through this last night but in reverse. Will hadn't wanted to go to sleep only to realize it had all been a dream, of me being alive, and us being here together after so long upon waking.

I guess it was just my turn to be overly emotional and sensitive, I mused quietly.

Neal came up and ran his bill through my bangs, preening me, as I'd come to learn, was his way of offering support.

We ended up drifting off to sleep like that, hands clasped tight, foreheads touching. Neal had dug himself into the sand as a makeshift nest in the middle of us.

When morning came, it was to the highly rationed out meal, made up of dry tack that Will preferred to carry in his Storage Box to last a long time out at sea.

When Will tried to apologize for that, everyone (except for Ace and Luffy) were quick to reassure him that it was much better than nothing.

Seeing how I'd fainted from walking yesterday, Sanji had offered to carry me for the remainder of the trip, while Vivi tried to get me to take her seat on Lashes.

I declined both since both males were massive perverts.

My refusal caused Sanji to sulk dramatically for a bit at the back of the line, but he was quick to recover when Nami started tugging on her robes and complaining of the heat being in them. Vivi mutters to her that they were better than getting sunburned so badly that you end up in the hospital with burn scars for life, or worse, dying. Sanji was quick to offer himself as their personal sunblock.

Nami shut up after that.

When Will offered to carry me, I said carefully, "umm...no offense Will, but I don't want you to get heatstroke too, from carrying me. Let's try to think of something else, okay?" How can I let my YOUNGER brother be the one to carry me? What kind of big sister would I be if I needed him to cart me over the desert?

Zoro then offered to pull me along the sled with Chopper, and I was almost tempted to do so, but I knew he'd realize that I weighed more than a 4'9" woman should weigh.

Even with factoring in that muscle weighs more than fat, I'm still almost a hundred pounds too heavy without looking it too. The weight of my tail doesn't disappear even when I'm in human form, after all the tail's still there in theory. I really don't want to reveal myself having a tail like that, would much rather it be in the water or something equally as cool…

As I hesitated, Neal hopped off of Will's shoulder and transformed into his full Gryphon form. With him holding his wings up, they provide shade from the sun's grueling rays.

His transformation startles everyone but Ace, Will, Luffy and myself, having seen his other forms before.

Zoro dropped the rope that led to the small makeshift sled for Chopper, and grabbed one of the hilts to his swords in his surprise.

Neal stood besides me and said calmly in his deep voice, "This way, you can keep your dignity as the elder sibling, and stay out of the sun. If you DO end up getting too tired or start to faint again, you can simply ride me, Wisteria-san."

I smiled and rested my hand over the shoulder joint of his wing and said, "thank you Neal, this is a great idea. Plus this way, Chopper won't get booted from his ride," I threw out a tease to Zoro. He grumbled with a light dusting of pink on his cheeks, but walked forwards, dragging Chopper behind him, who hadn't woken despite the commotion. I frowned out of concern for the little doctor.

Luffy tried to walk alongside me under the shade of Neal's wing, but when the trail led us up one of the fifty meter tall sand dunes and we were forced to walk single file, he ended up behind me. I had to climb up and sit astride Neal's shoulders, my legs in front of the shoulder joint for his wings in case we had to fly for an emergency.

Riding Neal by myself like this was an odd experience.

Before, when Will had scooped me up and sat me down behind him, I didn't really pay any attention to how it felt to be riding an animal that was part bird and part lion.

For the most part my ass rested overtop the area of his back that was fur and only blended into feathers where my thighs down rested over the curvature of his front legs shoulders. However, there was about two to four inches of space that had a fur under layer and short feathers that grew mixed in with the fur as it flowed from a teal blue feathers into the silvery grey of his lion's fur.

After twenty minutes of us walking like this where I rode on Neal's back, Will opened up his Storage Box and drew out a leather saddle for Neal.

"This will protect both Neal's feathers and fur from rubbing wrong, and also it saves your tailbone while riding for long hours," he had a sheepish smile on his face as he continued, "took several trial and errors before we found what worked best with his mixture of feathers and fur. Haha," he trailed off into chuckles.

I got down and helped him strap Neal into the saddle.

It had straps that wrapped around his chest and then looped down under his stomach and then back up on the other side of his wings, with the seat for the rider situated where I'd been sitting before. There were no proper "stirrups", instead there were fasteners for a person's legs at the knee and one small loop for the foot to rest in.

"No stirrups Will?" I asked as he helped me strap my legs in properly.

"Nah, this way if he's wearing the saddle while I'm not actually IN the saddle there's nothing to swing around and hit him when he moves fast," he explained, pointing to the snap lock design for the leg strap, "That was actually one of the improvements we had to fix, since a buckle was too complicated for if we entered battle. Nowadays, I only use these for really long flights, otherwise I only stick my feet into the loops here at the bottom and just use my leg strength to keep me on," he shrugged and casually added on, "you get used to it eventually."

I nodded and shifted in my seat, it was a little too big for me, but not by too much thankfully. Seeing how it was probably specially made for Neal to carry Will, it was only natural that it would fit best with his ass in the saddle, I snickered to myself.

"SUUUGOOOIIIII!"

We jumped in surprise, as Luffy's head stretched out to where it's wedged in between the two of us as he looks over Neal's saddle. Neal turns his head around and I swear I've never seen a bird besides owls twist their necks around so far around like that. It wasn't a near perfect 180 degrees like most owls but it was pretty damn close!

I leaned back and to the side away from Luffy and Neal's heads and asked nervously, "Ummmm, what?"

Real smooth Wisp...nice and eloquent wording there, I think with an inner eye roll.

"Can you please not scream so close to my ear's Captain Luffy," Neal asked exasperatedly.

"Oh, shihihihihihihi, Sorry Neal!" Luffy says as the rest of his body snaps up to be in the correct position with his head. He slammed into Will's shoulder and asked with a bright grin, "Hey, hey, can I ride too?! This looks like fun!"

His smile is wide and excited, and I can see Will glance at the sun and then at Neal.

"Uhhh, I don't know Captain. You'd have to ask Neal and Will."

I was stalling, I know, but this wasn't my decision after all.

Luffy turned to Neal and asked, "Neal, Can I ride on your back too?"

Neal turned his head to look at Luffy besides him and away from me, and cocked his head in thought.

"Hmm….only for an hour. While I can carry two, it is not comfortable since you'd be sitting on my tailbone instead of the middle of my back like Wisteria-san."

"WOOHOO!" Luffy shouted in glee, fist bumping the air as he ran around us in joy.

Will looked Neal in the eye and after a quiet, thoughtful, 'hmm' nodded and then moved on further ahead of us.

Luffy climbed on behind me, making sure to be careful with Neal's wings, and wrapped his rubbery arms around me twice for a secure hold. Thankfully, Neal kept his wings up so that they still provided some shade for the two of us. A part of me felt guilty as out of the group we probably had it the best. With Neal's wings up providing shade, we were out of the direct rays of the sun and therefore not getting as sunburnt as everyone else. at least until noon when the sun will be directly overhead...

Luffy's hour was soon up, and he got off without too much complaint, and we all continued walking in the seemingly endless desert wasteland...

_time lapsed_

It was only after we'd gotten off the mini-mountain-sized sand dune that problems arose.

Luffy had decided that he was too thirsty to wait for our afternoon water/rest break, and since he couldn't get water out of Will's Storage Box, he'd just have to settle for the water found inside several of the surrounding cacti.

Unfortunately these particular cacti, when consumed, caused hallucinogenic tendencies.

It wasn't more than minutes after Luffy had consumed three of the cacti's juices that he stopped following the rest of us, and for us to realize that. When we all looked back, we saw that his eyes had started to spin and he devolved into his personal delusion. In his mind, Crocodile had shown up and was attacking us.

"CROCODILE!" Luffy shouted, as he started running towards the second strongest member of our group, that being the very unfortunate Zoro, who his delusional mind had decided was Crocodile.

Will, who had at the time, been standing next to Zoro as the two had been conversing along the way, called out, "Woah Luffy! Hold on! We're not Crocodile!" but to no avail.

Luffy was too far gone in his forced psychosis.

Zoro, thankfully managed to block Luffy's 'Gum-Gum Pistol' that he'd launched, shouting out "You're such a troublesome captain," he'd had to drop the rope that led to Chopper's little sled, which awoke the heat stricken reindeer.

Surprised, Chopper called out, "What! Luffy! Those cacti are known for causing hallucinations!" He immediately started digging around in his blue medical backpack.

Nami and Vivi, who were still riding the perverted Lashes, raced on ahead as Lashes was told to do so by Sanji to 'keep the ladies safe'. Usopp ran after them and surprisingly was able to keep up with the galloping camel despite his fatigue and running in the desert sand. To no surprise, Sanji appeared to have zero difficulty in running in the sand, with his leg muscles, of course he'd have no issue. Who knows what kind of crazy training regime he must have had to endure to be as strong as he is with just his legs alone, I thought distractedly.

As soon as Luffy had started to rage, Neal had flown us up into the air to avoid my crazed out captain's wrath. Of course, if Luffy had been after US, he'd have been able to attack us, even up in the air as we were. What with his ability to stretch as a rubber man and all.

This left Zoro, Will and Chopper down on the ground to defend against Luffy, while the others quickly sped off into the distance.

Looking around, I was surprised to see no sign of Ace. Where did he wander off to?

Luffy ended up chasing the two men down the side of the tall sand dune and getting Will, Zoro and himself nearly buried from the sand that slid down the slope due to their jumping around to dodge his attacks.

Neal flew me down to Chopper, who we heard shout out, "ah ha! This should do the trick!" and Neal informed him of the three men's burial.

Chopper freaked out and raced down the slope. Digging out the boys turned out easier said than done. Thankfully Zoro was able to sit up and pull himself out while Chopper and I worked to dig up Will.

Neal had spread his wings over us to provide shade for the two of us.

Thinking that we might be in the clear we relaxed for but a moment.

Luffy however had not settled down, if anything, being buried by sand had only deepened the hallucination, according to Chopper. He swung out another Pistol attack to Zoro, calling him Crocodile again, and we were quick to dodge again. In the rush to dodge Luffy's fist, I lost track of where Chopper had ran off to hide.

It was only a moment more and then Luffy passed out into the sand face first, Chopper standing over him, panting from having to move so fast in this heat. In his hoof-hand was a large syringe which he explained had a sedative, made specifically for Luffy's wacked out metabolism.

Luffy would be fine and raring to go in an hour or two, just enough time for the cacti juice to move through his system and leave his head clear. Chopper warned that Luffy would probably have a migraine due to the cacti juice wearing off, but no one was feeling very charitable towards the slumbering Captain.

This was when Neal came down to deliver the bad news, due to the commotion, we could no longer see the others, and thanks to the sand dune's attempt to bury us all, their footprints had been erased more effectively than a trail of footprints in a blizzard.

Neal and I did know the rough general direction though, thankfully, so after loading up Luffy on Neal's back, we all started walking after our other companions. I stayed under Neal's wing to block out the sun as much as possible, with Will walking alongside me.

During the walk, Chopper proclaimed that he'd adjusted enough to the climate that he refused to be dragged on the makeshift sled. Zoro seemed pleased and the two took the lead while Will and I hung back with Neal.

I could hear them talk about having joined with a troublesome captain, Can't say I disagree there, but it was nice to hear Zoro encourage the young doctor. However my attention to their conversation was sidetracked by Will as he asked me a very important question that I had been stubbornly refusing to think about.

"So, what's your plan after this is over Wisp?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, were you going to stay with these guys? Would you like to come with Ace and I to Whitebeard's ship? Head out on our own to search for Crys and mom?"

He shrugged, trying to play it off like my answer wouldn't be a big deal to him either way, but I could see his eyes shifting back an forth to my face and then back out to the desert. He never could look someone in the eyes when he was trying to hide how something affected him emotionally.

"I hadn't thought about it much to be honest." I looked back at Luffy, who is still passed out across Neal's shoulders. I smiled at the sight of Luffy's sleepy mumbles as I thought aloud for Will's benefit...

"I like these guys, and I've been having a lot of fun so far. Originally my plan was just to get a bounty poster as I searched for all of you."

At Will's confused gaze, I blushed, "I'd guessed you all had thought me dead ok? I thought, that if you saw my bounty poster you'd know I was alive and anyways, I don't think we'd make it far with just the two of us. Have you thought about maybe staying? With me?" I clarified at his confused face.

"Not really. Ace told you all that we were chasing a traitor, right?"

I nodded, remembering their hurt, angry, bitter faces back on the Going Merry.

"Well thing is, the guy who'd been hurt? We still haven't received word on weather he pulled through...when we left the Moby Dick to chase Teach, Thatch had still been in a coma."

I nodded sadly, silently encouraging Will to go on as I thought, this guy Thatch must have been a close friend of Will's for him to be this torn up about him.

"Thatch was a friend. He and Ace were the ones to bring me on broad the Moby Dick last year. I'd almost given up hope on ever finding a way off that island, let alone finding Crys or mom."

He was looking at the ground now and I could see that this was hard for him.

"Ace feel's like it's his fault you know."

Now it's my turn to be confused and for him to clarify what he said.

"For Thatch getting hurt by Teach. For not seeing his betrayal coming. All because Ace is the commander of the second division and Teach had been a member of the second division."

Ahhhh….commander's responsibility. Good to see that FireFist is so responsible for his men. "What division were you placed under during your time aboard the Moby Dick?" I was trying to change the topic away from such sad things. Will went along with a small smile.

"I was in the sixteenth division, under Commander Izo." I tilted my head in confusion. I'd thought that since he was here with Ace that it meant that Ace was his commander.

Seeing my frown, Will explained, "Izo was responsible for the domestic stuff aboard the ships. Seeing to it that the entire ship was properly stocked and outfitted with everything we needed, except for the food of course, that was under Thatch's division as the head chef. This included things like clothes, tools, materials and whatnot. Being an artist myself, I apparently have a knack for this kind of stuff. I was sent along with Ace due to my Devil Fruit and his, uhhh, voracious appetite."

It was the first time I'd seen Will stutter for words since we'd met up again. I hadn't even realized that he hadn't done so until now.

"Hey! Your stutter is nearly gone! Awesome!" Smiling widely, I clapped him on the bicep in congratulations.

His smile was small and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head, "Ha ha ha, yeah, turns out that when your teaching someone how to talk, it helps you to get rid of it...hahaha"

Neal ruffles his feathers when he said in mock irritation, "In the beginning, I had to have him repeat himself a lot so I could hear the proper annunciation for several words. Eventually, he managed to stop stuttering so much. Granted it nearly came back when we went into the village proper."

Will's face went bright red as he whirled on Neal in indignation, with a whine, "Hey! You're not supposed to tell her that! Why do you always pick on me!"

I couldn't help laughing at Neal's whining cry towards Neal as he threw his hands up in the sky.

It was so wonderful to have my brother back in my life...