RIAEVANS: Thank you!

Why... why do I torture myself? Why did I not finish editing a story with 70,000 words before creating another one that is 146,000 words, and then go to another one that is so far 90,000 words? Why do I torture myself? That's almost 600 pages to edit. Those two new stories won't be coming out in awhile. sigh... Anyways, enjoy the chapter. Sigh again...

When Luffy woke up first, he gasped and jumped off the couch, seeing all of the colored pens and paper, along with big maps that he could color in the lines. "Look! Ace, Sabo, look!" Luffy shouted, startling them awake.

"What's that stuff?" Sabo asked with a yawn. None of them had meant to sleep, but they'd woken up pretty early that day.

"Coloring and drawing stuff," Luffy said as he looked at all of the different shaped maps. "Like my coloring books that got ruined," he added.

"I bet Marco brought them," Ace said, smiling at how excited Luffy looked. Everything was going normally until the ship tilted and the boys were thrown off the couch and floor and into the wall. The door shut and suddenly the room felt terribly claustrophobic. There were no windows inside, and all of the boys shouted and went to open the door and get out. Luffy started breathing quickly at the scary shock.

There was a porthole in Maro's office, furniture bolted down and cupboards locked so things didn't spill out, and they saw they were in a storm. "Back in the room!" Sabo shouted. "We won't fall down the hallway or ruin Marco's office," Sabo said, closing the door and keeping them in the room. Luffy shifted into full form and stuck to the wall, sucking Ace and Sabo up into him enough that they were stuck, but not suffocating or in pain.

It made them a little sick, but they stuck to the wall just fine. It only lasted a couple minutes before the ship was righted, though they stayed in that place for a good two minutes before trusting it was over, Luffy letting them down and turning back into human form. Sabo had a bruise forming on his arm, but it was nothing too serious.

They hurried out of the room and into the hall, seeing pirates cursing wounds from hitting into the walls. It looked like no one was prepared for the storm, not just the boys. Luckily, Luffy's new drawing supplies survived, though the pens were in all different corners of the room.

The three went out on deck and passed people heading to the infirmary. It was thanks to Luffy that they didn't sustain injuries worse than a couple bruises. Ace should have been fine, but Sabo could have gotten very hurt. The deck was soaked in water and the storm was behind them. The three must have looked disheveled because Marco hurried over to them and asked if they were okay.

"Luffy stuck us to the wall, so we're okay," Sabo assured. "That storm came out of nowhere." Marco nodded.

"We haven't had a surprise storm that intense and fast in months, guess we've been lucky," the phoenix replied.

"Thank you for the drawing stuff," Luffy said with a bright smile, knowing it was Marco who brought them. It was his special room after all, that he was sharing with them so kindly. The pirates were lowering the sails again, all soaking wet from the previous rain and waves crashing over the deck and onto the pirates.

"You're welcome. I'm sorry we haven't brought you all toys sooner. You're kids after all," Marco said, sounding truly sad and ashamed. Luffy looked down. Ace and Sabo didn't really want toys, Sabo wanted books and Ace just wanted to learn to read already. Sabo was doing his best to teach him when they had a lot of down time and Ace was practicing like crazy with writing.

Luffy shook his head. "It was my fault for ruining all the ones we brought with us," he said sadly. Whitebeard was there, listening to them speak while drying off his chair with a massive towel. He was quick to interject.

"You did not do that on purpose, therefore, it is not your fault your toys were broken," the giant captain said in a strong voice. "I don't want you to blame yourself for something unintentional and that you would never do on purpose." Luffy nodded, though he still felt ashamed. He'd had some of the toys for as long as he could remember. "The next island we stop at, we're going shopping for toys and coloring books."

The boys nodded, Luffy looking excited for it. Whitebeard spoke again, taking the boys attention while he was now sitting on his dry chair again. "Thatch and Izo have been reprimanded and punished for not giving you privacy. Everyone will be reminded of our rule of privacy. I'm sorry that happened, since you were all in such a good mood beforehand," the captain said sincerely.

Luffy shook his head, worried about what kind of punishment Thatch and Izo got. He was upset about them listening in, but didn't want them in trouble about it. "What was their punishment?" Luffy asked in worry.

"Don't worry, Luffy, it was nothing major. Laundry duty and a restriction on alcohol, which is most certainly not a bad thing to most," Whitebeard explained honestly.

"I think the reprimand from Pops was the worst part for them. No one wants him disappointed in them," Marco added. The boys nodded, glad Thatch wasn't punished too harshly. And maybe he would be happier not having a hangover in the early morning and could get up to cook like usual.

That night, the boys made sure to go to dinner, hungry from missing lunch and not having gone to get snacks. They spent much of the day in the Special Room, Sabo working to teach his brothers to read and write.

Thatch looked bummed all dinner, looking guiltily at the boys and the captain. Izo looked down as well, but Thatch was the most noticeable. When Jozu asked what had happened, Whitebeard made it clear that they wouldn't talk about it, as punishment had already been dealt. That just made everyone more curious, and Luffy felt bad.

"We shouldn't'a told anyone," the boy muttered between sips of juice.

Ace sighed. "They had to get in trouble for it, right? So they won't do it again?" he offered, being gentle with Luffy, who felt guilty for getting his friend in trouble.

"But they already knew they did something bad before Marco knew," the youngest pointed out.

"That may be true, but we had to say something anyway or Ace would have stayed mad, and if we hadn't said anything, Marco wouldn't have let us use his Special Room, right?" Sabo replied. Luffy got his point and nodded in agreement. It was true, they got something good from that negative experience. Marco really cared about them being comfortable here. The boys wondered why he came to talk to them in the first place.

After dinner was over and the galley and kitchen clean, Thatch found the boys in the library again, Sabo reading books to his brothers that weren't allowed to leave the room. He walked up to them looking thoroughly ashamed.

"I want to apologize to you guys for listening in. I'm not going to make any excuses, it was wrong and a violation of privacy. And I'm not mad about you telling Marco about it. I deserved to be punished for breaking one of our biggest rules. I'm a commander, I should set a better example, and I will from now on. No more listening in on conversations. Besides pranking the commanders, but I won't eavesdrop on you again," the cook since sincerely, regret written all over his face.

"We forgive you," Sabo said. "Besides, we got a nice new hiding place from you upsetting us." Thatch looked curious, but closed his mouth to not ask.

"That's good. At least something good came from me being a nosy jerk," Thatch replied with a smile, small though it may be. The boys nodded, and Luffy went back to coloring his maps. They didn't look anything like maps by the time they were all colored, more like abstract drawings, but he liked them, so that was all that mattered.

-x-

Luffy sat in the chair in the tattoo room with Izo, patch over his eye as Izo worked more on removing the face tattoo. It was fading, but not quickly. It would take many sessions, after all. Izo stressed that a lot at the first one.

"You know, once you're older, you can get another tattoo somewhere. Getting a tattoo of your choice is always a nice feeling. It sends a message anyone could see on your own body," Izo said as he carefully moved the laser over Luffy's tattooed skin. He was good at staying perfectly still.

"Do you have one?" the boy asked curiously.

Izo replied, "I do. It's a tree on by back, the kind from the land I grew up in. it reaches up my spine. One of the bigger ones on the crew. Marco has one as well. It's a blue bird flying from an open cage. It's small, on his shoulder blade. We all have the Whitebeard jolly roger, one of the two designs, somewhere on our body. Marco's it on his chest, which is why he wears an open shirt most of the time. We take pride in those tattoos," he explained.

Luffy thought for a minute, trying to think of an idea for his own tattoo if he ever got one. Izo said when he was older, so probably most kids didn't get tattoos at his age. Well, he had a long time to wait. "I don't know what I would want."

"Well, you have a long time to decide," Izo replied. He tiptoed around the next question from the boy.

"If we stayed, would we have to get a Whitebeard tattoo?" he asked. Izo thought for a moment before answering.

"Only if you'd choose to. Some wear the jolly roger on their clothes, those who don't want tattoos. Of course, if you joined, we wouldn't make you boys get tattoos as children. I refuse to tattoo children under the age of fifteen. Pops agrees with me on that one, too. We don't want kids getting a tattoo they'd regret getting some day. After all, it takes a long time and usually a lot of money to have a tattoo removed.

"You're getting yours for free, so you're lucky," Izo finished with a wink. Luffy smiled, and said he couldn't wait for the tattoo to be gone.

Izo chuckled. "You'll be very cute once the tattoo is gone." Luffy replied with "cute is better than creepy".

"That is very true," Izo replied. Luffy then asked another question about what happens after joining the crew. His brothers weren't in the room, which was why he was comfortable asking Izo the questions. He knew Ace and Sabo were undecided. Luffy wanted to stay, letting go all the mistakes made by some of the crewmembers. But, if his brothers wouldn't stay, there was no way he was going to be separated with them. They were family, no matter what, and they wouldn't break apart.

"If we joined, would we have to call Whitebeard 'Pops'?" he asked curiously.

Izo shook his head, reaching the bottom of the tattoo and carefully tracing the tip of it, which was skinny and sharp. "You could choose to call him whatever you're comfortable with. We call him Pops because he calls us his sons. You could continue to call his Whitebeard, or captain, or banana mustache, whatever you'd like. There, this session is over," Izo said, putting the tool down and taking his gloves off.

"Thanks, Izo," Luffy said with a smile, and hurried out of the room to see his brothers. They were both sitting on either side of the door.

Sabo looked up at him and asked, "All done?" Luffy nodded, and both boys stood up, Ace yawning. He'd not gotten much sleep last night. It was the first night in weeks that Luffy did not take a bath before bed. It was still in the small side room, and Ace stayed up most of the night to make sure Luffy had no bad dreams. He didn't, and the night was peaceful.

"Ace, if you're that tired, you can take a nap, you know," Sabo said.

Suddenly, the door across the hall slammed open and Thatch went running out, Jozu chasing him angrily. Sabo and Ace looked to Luffy to see him looking frightened. It had been a loud sudden noise.

"It's okay, Lu. It was just Thatch probably failing at a prank," Ace assured. Luffy closed his eyes and counted to ten, getting better at managing the panic attacks or just being startled much quicker than he used to. It was times like these that reminded them all that Luffy was not all better yet. His panic attacks were mostly gone, but he still was afraid and startled by loud, sudden noises.

Sabo rubbed his back, and the boys went outside to start their daily training sessions. Sabo was fighting Vista with his jitte, Ace training his self-control with Marco, and Luffy trying to be faster in his half form, the completely black human form. He was trying to climb up the mast. He could do so in monster form, but this one was difficult. Namur was standing under him to catch him when he fell, which he did a lot.

It was harder to do this in his half form due to the substance being less sticky. Marco had told him that his monster form was too big to be stealthy, no matter the dark color. So, he was training to be sneaky and a fly on the wall. The phoenix had told him he should be trained in many different ways, and may someday need to be sneaky. So, now was good practice.

Sabo was below them, hitting vista's swords as hard as he could, and blocking when necessary. It was harder for him to learn than it was for Luffy and Ace. After all, the jitte was heavy and Sabo had to get used to fighting with something longer than his own arm. But, he was improving well.

Whitebeard watched the whole time, a smile on his face. Luffy lost the stick and started to fall before shooting his arms out and attaching stick to the mast, keeping him from falling. He was barefoot as well, so his feet were helping him climb.

"Nice, Luffy!" Haruta called, coming out of the ship to watch the boys train. Luffy was unable to smile or reply or unstick from the wall, so he hoped Haruta didn't think he was ignoring the compliment. He snapped back to the wood, hands stuck to the mast again, and resumed climbing slowly and carefully.

Ace worked on making his body tangible and intangible with Marco. Marco would hit him or go after him as he sat, and Ace was to make sure the phoenix would go through him instead of inuring him. Then, he would toss a ball at Ace, which he was supposed to catch in solid form. It was a good way to train, and Ace was learning quickly.

Marco had been right about Ace being adept at his devil fruit. He was a fast learner at combat, unlike the reading and writing. The boys trained for a good two hours, Luffy finally making it to the top of the mast. He was then given the dangerous task of crawling across the yardarm upside down. Multiple pirates now stood under him to catch him if he fell, which he didn't. He only dropped down when he reached the end, and was caught in Rayuko's arms. He clearly didn't like the feel of Luffy in this form, so the boy immediately went back to normal.

"I did it!" he cheered, jumping up and down. It had taken him many hours to successfully complete that day's training. It was mid afternoon by the time all three boys were done for the day, exhausted. Sabo's arms were sore, Ace's whole body was tired after switching his power on and off for hours, and Luffy's whole body ached. He'd never done much in his half form. Mostly used his human body and his monster body, which was the reason he was being trained the way he was.

Haruta had hurried to the side of the ship when one of his division members came back holding a telescope. The pirates on deck all were alerted by the behavior, expecting a fight to come, but not knowing who it was against. The boys were all leaning against the wall of the cabin and drinking fizzy water from Thatch and some crustless sandwiches, just how they liked them.

They looked to the side to see Whitebeard and Marco walk to the side of the ship and look at the horizon. Whitebeard looked surprised, and the boys became worried. They got to their feet and walked to Marco, asking what was wrong.

"Some marines are heading our way. You three need to stay inside for the battle. It's a strong man on the ship. He could hurt you all easily, and he won't go easy on children if he believes you are on the crew, which you are, to us. So, you three need to wait inside," Marco explained. The three shared looks.

"But we've been training!" Ace protested. Luffy was nodding, too. They wanted to fight! To show they could hold their own like they had against the other marines.

Marco looked at them with sympathetic eyes. "It's not that we think you are weak, but Ace and Sabo will be useless against this man. He can cover his entire body is armament haki. He could beat Ace to pulp, and break your jitte. I don't know if he could harm Luffy or not, but we don't want to test it out in a situation like this," he explained. Ace's face fell, and Luffy pouted.

"Can't we take out the weaker ones?" Sabo questioned. Marco shook his head.

"If Vergo sees you as a threat, then he will go after you first. He's most likely coming to avenge Smoker and his men after Vista and you three killed them. As far as we know, nobody knows much about you three."

"Marco! Pops! There are more than one vice-admirals on that ship!" Haruta shouted in panic. "Boys, get inside now!" he shouted. The three knew vice-admirals were strong men in the marines, and they ran inside and hid in the galley under the tables.

They waited in the silence, until Thatch ran in, ushering the boys into the kitchen and into the cupboards. They were small enough to fit inside of them. Thatch said he was there to guard them, even though he desired to fight. "You'll be fine in here, and if anyone comes in, I'll protect you," he said calmly.

The boys wished they could fight, but trusted the pirates to know what was best. The fighting sounded not much later, but they couldn't see Thatch's reactions in the cupboards since they were closed and locked from the outside.