phoenix: our little Luffy is so brave lol.

RIAEVANS: You're very welcome.

Marco laid in bed that night, Ace and Luffy asleep, the youngest lethargic after his bath-treatment. He couldn't stop going over the mess that was that day. He was still angry with Whiskey, perturbed at her carelessness with how she spoke, but it seemed to have made Luffy more determined to get better. At least on the outside.

He had to admire him. Luffy had acted more mature than most men on the crew would. He may have shouted and pointed his finger and pouted, but he quickly forgave Whiskey, balancing his anger with understanding. Marco knew that the conversation had been a set back for Ace and Sabo's belief in the crew, which Whiskey was very upset about causing, but Luffy showed true determination and commitment.

Luffy was correct; there was no one like him. By the end of the second talk, Luffy was given a plan to heal. They went through the books together, the child showing incredible attention span for his age. He was determined to be better, and the crew would gladly help him to be. Someone was staying on watch with Luffy's nightmares, and they were planning on treating him as if he had PTSD, which they were strongly leaning towards.

They were going to start regular exercise, since most of the day he was sitting somewhere. His wound made it a bit harder, but he'd be doing periodic walks. No speed was set, just as fast as he could go without hurting himself.

He was also going to meet new people on the crew. They were mostly familiar faces, but isolating himself to the same people and being afraid of new people wasn't helping anyone. He talked to Jinbei, he could talk to the other crew members. But only those Luffy had definitely seen before.

The thing Luffy would have most trouble with would be succumbing to his feelings. Letting it all out and not trying to be strong unless he was all alone with his brothers at night or in the morning. There were many problems from Luffy's childhood from before, along with Ace's and Sabo's as well, but they wanted to take care of the trauma before the lasting damage, though they would definitely take that into account.

By the morning, Marco hadn't slept much, but went into the boys' room to wake Ace and Sabo and ask if they wanted him the bring them breakfast. The sight he met was both older boys curled around Luffy, who was dead to the world, drool down his chin and hands up above his head.

Marco couldn't bring himself to break up the cute scene, so he left to get them breakfast regardless. They would wake up from the smell, not wanting the food to be cold. When he came back, Sabo was up and rubbing his eyes.

"Hey, Sabo. I brought you three breakfast," Marco said, not too loudly, not wanting to risk waking up Luffy. Word of last night had not spread, even to the commanders. It was a medical situation and therefore confidential from anyone but the nurse and captain, if even him. Marco only went for support for the boys.

Seeing Luffy's heartbroken face and Ace and Sabo's rage at Whiskey had been hard to watch. No one had seen those expressions yet. Marco was glad they weren't aimed at him, which was stupid, he knew. Ace woke up from the smell and the two older boys dug in.

When Ace held a piece of bacon under Luffy's nose for a few minutes, the little nose wrinkled before he woke up and started digging in, a bit tiredly but it didn't affect his eating. "How'd you sleep, Luffy?"

"No bad dreams," Luffy replied. Everyone smiled, happy that he hadn't had anymore nightmares. It had only been two nights, but so far it was going well.

"What time do you want to do your walk?" Marco asked, eating his own toast. Luffy shrugged before saying after breakfast. Then, there would be a little gathering with those who weren't commanders who were going to meet with Luffy and try to make friends. No one Teach hung out with, for Luffy's sake. They were sure there were no more traitors aboard their ship.

They would then be playing cards, doing a normal activity with other people. Of course, Ace and Sabo would be there, but they would not be the focus of Luffy's attention. All three were nervous but excited for the day, hoping they could help Luffy a lot doing these things. And gain more trust of the crew. Still, only the shipwrights knew about the ruined bedroom as they were going to be the ones to fix it. They were under oath to not spread around what had happened.

The walk was uneventful, and soon there was a table made in the library full of cards and board games. Marco was in the corner to supervise in case something went wrong, not that he thought Luffy would lose control. It was just that, after the nightmare, it had become a small possibility in his eyes. The only time Luffy had unintentionally used his powers was in his sleep. Three members of Marco's division, one of Thatch's and one of Namur's were at the table. They were all people who had been trusted at least once to carry Luffy to bed back when he felt safe enough for people to do so.

They played a game called BS first, which Luffy was actually really good at. He won the first two rounds thanks to his old poker face. The seven of them played happily. Luffy was having fun even if he had his poker face on. When the game changed to Spoons, a fast paces one, Luffy was not the best. Lee was the winner of most of the rounds with great multitasking concentration.

It had Luffy distracted and no one got angry when he tried shuffling and the cards flew everywhere. Laughter rang around the table, and Joseph talked about his previous escapades with gambling, which Luffy didn't understand.

"It's when you're an idiot and throw your money away," Lee explained. Joseph hit him on the shoulder.

"It wasn't throwing money away!" he argued. Perry was shuffling the deck of cards while they talked.

"Oh yeah? Then why were you utterly penniless when we brought you here?" Harris asked, the one from Namur's division. Joseph had no response, and instead of answering, just pouted with his arms crossed. It made the boys laugh at his expense, though he didn't take offense at it.

After another hour of cards, Luffy was called for his first counseling session with Wendy. He was nervous, but in a good mood from the fun he'd just had. He talked about enjoying playing with cards to his brothers and escort, Marco. He'd never played with cards before, and they hadn't even touched the board games. Next time they would.

The counseling room was down the hall of the infirmary, in a cozy room with a porthole and a couch and chair. Ace and Sabo sat outside of the room, Luffy inside by himself with Wendy. If he grew too uncomfortable, the session was over and no one would be upset.

Luffy was surprised with the start of the first session. "Why don't you tell me about yourself, Luffy? Your likes and dislikes, what you find fun." Luffy didn't question her, even if he wanted to. Wendy was supposed to know what she was talking about and would say nicer words than Whiskey had.

"I like my old toys, and coloring and being with my brothers and looking at the sea. I have fun with my brothers, but I don't like when they fight, or leave me alone, which they don't really do. I don't wanna kill anymore, because they told me that was bad, and I want to be good and not kill nice people. Marco said some people are okay to kill, like those bad men on that island, but other people aren't for killing." If Wendy was surprised by the admission, she didn't show it.

"What did you do at the facility for fun?" She wasn't going to go deep into things on the first session. That's not how she did things.

Luffy answered immediately. "Played with Ace and Sabo in our room." Wendy asked if that was it, and Luffy nodded. "Have you ever had fun with your devil fruit? Something other than hurting anyone?" The boy shook his head.

"I only did jobs," he said, returning to the subject Wendy kept pushing them away from.

She was writing things down quickly, but also paying full attention to Luffy, making eye contact most of the time. "Ace and Sabo are your whole life, basically?" the nurse/counselor asked with a smile. Luffy nodded. "Have you ever been without them besides with jobs you went on?" Luffy shook his head.

"Before I found them, I didn't know them. I found them on a job and then wanted to take them with me. I don't know why, never knew why. Just thought they were good. They didn't like me at first, which hurt, but then they started to like me and now we're brothers. But, I feel guilty for forcing them to stay, even if I didn't know about them wanting to leave so badly," Luffy explained, finishing in an ashamed voice.

"Thank you for sharing. Last, before we end, will you tell me your goals of coming here? What do you wish to get out of our future sessions?" Wendy asked with a smile. Luffy answered right away.

"I don't want nightmares, or to be scared of new people and places. I want to be normal, like I was for a little bit. I liked that me and I want to be like that again. I'm good, I know I am, at least now, but I'm not how I want to be after what happened," the youngest explained. Wendy was scribbling down on her note pad.

She smiled at him and closed to notepad. Luffy hadn't noticed how much she'd written down. It went very fast. "Those are some good goals to strive for. To make it more simple, you wish to deal with the trauma, the nightmares and fear, and to be a better person from it?" Luffy nodded in agreement.

"I think that is good for today. You did very well. Thank you, and don't worry, I will tell no one what you have said to me. Not even the captain," the nurse promised. "Our head nurse has felt very badly about upsetting you, so I'd like to thank you personally for forgiving her."

The boy nodded and got up to leave. "When will you like to see me again?" Luffy shrugged, not really caring much. It wasn't as bad as Ace made it seem like it was going to be. Wendy seemed nice, and didn't push him to talk about serious stuff that he kept accidentally bringing up.

"How about in three days? Two days after you go onto the island?"

"Okay," and he left. Ace and Sabo were waiting outside, and Thatch was there, too, with two big picnic baskets.

"Ready to go, Luffy? I have some yummy food and blankets for a picnic," the chef said enthusiastically, holding up the baskets.

"What's a picnic?" Luffy questioned, never having heard of one. They didn't exactly do things like that at the facility. Thatch looked sad for a moment before recovering.

"It's when you go to someplace outside and eat a meal. There's a nice flower field I'm planning on taking you, far from the cities. It'll be fun! I heard you had a lot of fun playing cards, so we can bring a deck of those too, if you'd like," Thatch offered with a grin. Luffy nodded, and they walked out onto deck and to the ramp that was put down that morning.

Ace and Sabo stood on either side of Luffy, just in case he stumbled and fell, but the worry was unwarranted, as Luffy had perfect balance. He was thinking about his meeting, and wondering if that was how it was for everyone who went to see Wendy.

"Thatch, have you ever gone to counseling with Wendy?" Luffy wondered. He didn't know if Thatch would tell him, but he was curious to compare. Not substance, but how the process was for other people.

"Not with Wendy, but I did for one of our previous nurses years ago. I think Wendy is nicer than Umi was. She was a bit blunt, to be honest. Like she wanted to beat the sadness out of you, not physically of course," he said cheerfully.

"Oh, okay," Luffy replied. "Wendy seems nice. It was a really short meeting," the boy commented as they walked through the forest, everyone keeping a lookout for anything dangerous. Despite Luffy's stomach being in good shape, he wasn't allowed to shift still, which made him only able to use part of his body to crush others if necessary. He couldn't trap them since he was unable to become big enough to do so.

"Yeah, the first meeting is usually short, trying to get to know you slowly, not to rush things. Slow and steady wins the race," the chef said. The walk to the field wasn't long, and Thatch was cheerfully swinging the baskets back and forth. The boys took in the scenery, Ace and Sabo the most.

When they entered the meadow, Luffy thought it was beautiful, and his brothers agreed. There were bright pink and yellow flowers everywhere. Thatch strode out into the flowers and grass and pulled a blanket out of one of the baskets and spread it over the flowers after shaking it out a couple times. The three followed in Thatch's footsteps, not wanting to trample any more flowers. Thatch laid out a huge platter of sliced chicken, fruits, some jello in a container, and freshly baked bread and home made donuts.

The boys all drooled at it, Sabo wiping his away the second he noticed it. "No grabby hands, we gotta eat slowly," Thatch said when Luffy reached for the first thing. "Our hands are dirty, so we are using silverware."

Sabo noticed something wrong with that logic. "We eat bread with forks?" he asked. Thatch looked confused a moment before he smacked his palm to his foreheard. But he regained composure quickly.

"Well, we can try at least?" he said, more of a question than a statement. The four ate the food slowly, enjoying it. Ace lit on fire a couple times, probably because he was finally not on a wooden surface. It was interesting that his clothes went along with the fire as well, when Luffy's were ruined by the spikes coming out of him.

"Hey Thatch, do you know a lot about devil fruits?" Ace questioned after his fire died out on its own.

"Nope," he answered and returned to his roll. He was saving most of the food for the boys, not eating much of it. "Why do you ask?"

Ace finished his bite of jello and took a drink of water before replying. "Well, why do my clothes catch on fire fine, but some of Luffy's are destroyed? You'd think it would stay constant between devil fruits, you know? Just makes me wonder. And Marco's clothes change, as well."

Sabo answered. "Don't forget, Luffy's fruit was tampered with and mutated. Things aren't gonna be the same with his powers than other fruits," he replied. "I think we could study Luffy's fruit for years and still not solve it completely." Thatch agreed, nodding his head as well.

"My fruit is cool. But Marco's is more cool cause he can fly," Luffy said with a mouthful of donut.

"Yeah, but he used to suffer from bird jokes a lot. Until he assigned everyone who called him that cleaning duty for a month. Let me tell you, the ship had never been cleaner," Thatch said with a laugh. "He exercised his rare first-mate privileges to punish the commanders as well. Plus, Pops went along with it. Even though he was guilty of it as well, since he's captain, of course one of his subordinates would not be able to punish him."

The boys smiled, amused by the story. "So, are you guys gonna join or what?" Thatch suddenly asked.

"I thought Whitebeard wasn't gonna ask us yet," Sabo said in confusion. Thatch shut his mouth loudly and then cursed.

"Nooo! I ruined the surprise!" he lamented.

"It wasn't a surprise, Marco already told us about it," Ace said, a little sharply. Sabo nudged him with a frown, and Ace lost the edge. "We're not sure yet."

"Why not?" Thatch asked (whined).

"Whiskey said some very hurtful things to Luffy. We don't blame you for Teach's actions, but Whiskey told him he was a psychopath that couldn't be fixed," Sabo explained with a deep frown. Thatch's jaw dropped in horror.

"She said WHAT?!" he exclaimed in pure rage. "How could she say something like that?! That's so mean! Luffy's clearly changed from before!" the chef ranted. Ace and Sabo nodded along.

"I already forgave her, even if I was hurt and upset by what she said. But she was wrong. I'm not a psychopath and I'm better now, which meant I did change. So she was wrong," Luffy explained calmly, though thinking about what the head nurse had said still hurt his feelings. Even if he did forgive, he couldn't forget.

"Hmph," Thatch said, crossing his arms. "I'm still mad about that. I've never seen anyone change so drastically in such a small timeframe. In a good way. But, I guess I could say Teach changed really suddenly, for the worse."

Ace and Sabo finished the last of the bread while Luffy took the last spoonful of jello. "Well, he was bad from the start, just no one knew," said Sabo. Thatch looked bummed for a moment before taking a glass of his water.

"Yeah, he was," he finally agreed. After the food was all gone, Thatch put the containers back in their baskets and pulled out the deck of cards. They played for awhile before they all just laid down on their backs and watched the clouds move.

"I have a question," Thatch said, breaking the comfortable silence. "What did you boys want to be when you grew up?"

"Marines," Ace said in a flat voice. When Thatch gasped, the freckled child laughed. "Just kidding. Fuck marines."

"Phew! You had me scared for a minute there," Thatch said with good humor.

Ace and Sabo shared a look, while Luffy looked up at the sky with a blank face. "Well, Sabo and I wanted to grow up and be pirate captains. We argued a lot about who would be captain, so we just settled on co-captains. We were planning on setting out at seventeen, so we have to do some other stuff before we get that old. And Luffy's coming, too, of course," Ace made sure to add.

"What do you want to be, Luffy?" Thatch asked in an interested voice.

"I don't know," Luffy said honestly. "Never thought I could or wanted to be anything other than what I was."

Thatch frowned deeply at that, and Ace and Sabo just felt pity, something they rarely felt for Luffy. Mostly sympathy and empathy now. "Well, now that you know that you can be something, anything, you want, what would you want to be?"

"Hmm… I don't know. No matter what, I want to stay with my brothers," he answered, not really knowing what to say. He didn't really think about anything but wanting to get better, wanting to be a good person. Not killing was easy, but maybe only because he didn't wanna kill everyone around him. No one was mean to him on the ship.

Ace shook him out of the dark thoughts he was heading towards by taking his hand. "You have a long life to make up what you want to be, even if someday you don't want to stay with us," he said gently. "Like everyone keeps saying, be who you want to be. Right?" Luffy smiled and nodded.

Once it started getting later and more chilly, the four packed up, Ace and Sabo carrying the baskets while Luffy had picked some flowers. He didn't tell them why, or where he was going to put them. "They're pretty, so I want to take them," was his explanation.

When they reached the ship, Luffy mad a beeline to Marco and Whitebeard. Ace and Sabo followed while Thatch returned the containers to the kitchen to wash before dinner, that his sou chefs were working on without him, since he was gone with the boys most of the day.

"Hello, boys, did you like the picnic?" Whitebeard asked. The three nodded. Then, Luffy held up his fistful of flowers. Both pirates looked surprised.

"Thanks for being nice to us," was Luffy's explanation. The flowers were much too small for Whitebeard to take, so Marco did, smiling at Luffy.

"That's very nice of you, but you don't need to thank us," Marco said lightly. "We're pirates, we do what we want. There's no need to thank us for doing what we want, right?" Ace and Sabo nodded in agreement. Luffy looked a bit confused, since his brothers had told him that thanking someone for doing something kind to them was normal. Luffy strived to be as normal as he could.

"Oh," was his only reply.

"Since the stems are so short, how about we press them and keep them in a book?" he offered. Luffy didn't know what that meant, so Sabo explained for him. "That way they'll be around longer."

"Okay!" Luffy said, thinking that was a good idea.