If you don't like 30 years before then that's fine, you don't need to tell everybody about it with vulgar language, there are underage people who read the comments and they don't need read stuff like that.

Secondly I'm not changing the story because some random doesn't like the story. Don't like it then go and read something else. Nobody is forcing you read this.

I'm writing this because I like it! Not for any other reason, this simply is self indulgent nonsense. It's a fanfic! Not something offensive.

Dragon's POV

I didn't really want us to go along with Whitebeard and the blonde kid, (I think his name was Mario) I would have preferred to find our own way to the top of the ship. Yet Luffy had pretty much made the decision for us, I couldn't exactly say no after he agreed to come with them, it would look suspicious.

So here we were, being 'escorted' (because that's what it was) by one of the Yonko and his weird little crewmate. I'm sure we were being led topside into some kind of trap.

Luffy had become 'friends' with Mario. The two of them had bonded over harassing me. They thought my moody attitude was very funny, also that breaking both of my hands was very stupid.

I didn't need them telling me that!

Also, I wasn't moody, I was the only sane individual in this entire group. Just because I didn't immediately beco-

Dragon calm down, there isn't a point in getting bent out of shape. It wouldn't help you; it will only make the situation worse.

I focused my attention back on the raven and the blonde, I had to make sure Luffy didn't blow his cover, he had nearly done it numerous times already in the short time that he had been talking to the other pirates.

Why are you such a pain... besides aren't you a pirate? Shouldn't you at least know how to lie, even a little?

It was honestly a miracle the kid had survived for two years as a pirate, let alone in such a dangerous place as the New World. His crew must be crazy to follow him, I could just imagine the amount of crap they had to put up with on a daily basis. Unless they were just as insane as he was, then fair play to them, they must be a nightmare for the government.

The boys were chattering away in excitement, I listened in, making sure Luffy didn't open his big mouth about anything important.

"Yeah, I can get stabbed and everything, then my flames will heal it, yoi!"

Luffy had his arms crossed in concentration, taking in everything the blonde boy was saying. Why he would listen to something like this and not take any interest in something life threatening?

"So, you're a logia zoan?"

Luffy asked frowning, I could almost see the cogs in his brain turning as he tried to work out what he was being told.

"Nope, Mythical Zoan Phoenix model, yoi. I'm not made of fire like a Logia is, it's more like I'm on fire, yoi...?"

Luffy nodded deep in thought with his hand under in chin, he actually looked intrigued.

"So, a mystery bird, that isn't made of fire, but is a bird and has fire?"

I watched my dumb kid tell Mario triumphantly, as if anything he had just said made any sense at all.

"Yup, yoi"

Wait he understood what Luffy said!? How? That was literal gibberish!

"I gotta know, you have a devil fruit right, yoi?"

The raven beamed merrily, as he dragged Mario away from a wall he almost collided with, I had no idea how he had the patience to keep catching the boy.

I certainly wouldn't.

"Ahuh! The Gomu Gomu no mi! I'm rubber man."

To prove his point Luffy stretched out his cheek, until he realized Mario could't see what he was doing and he let it snap back into place, disappointed.

"You're rubber! I really wanna see, yoi!"

The young captain gazed at the blonde for a moment, as if he was pondering about something. Before Luffy grabbed hold of his wrist, pulling it towards his face.

"Go ahead you can pull my face as you can't see"

Mario cheered and without any hesitation began tugging at the corners of his mouth, the raven just stood there letting him do it.

"Hey you wanna touch my wings, my fire doesn't burn unless I want it to, yoi?"

Luffy grinned eagerly, stars in his eyes.

"Yeah Shishishi!"

The boy's arm burst alight, bright blue flames consuming his right arm, until a glowing wing was in its place, which he offered to Luffy.

I just stared on in confusion at the weird exchange, they were both pulling at each other without remorse. Mario had his index finger hooked around Luffy's cheek extending it as far as his arm would reach, while the older kid pulled at the others wing, flaming feathers were plucked out, yet the blonde didn't seem to care.

And they were laughing at each hysterically, they were having an absolute melt down together. I wasn't sure how they were managing to walk still. Some kind of special skill idiots acquired.

"Whoa, how does it work? Is it good for fighting, yoi?"

The raven puffed out his chest proudly, large grin appearing, he let go of Mario's blazing appendage and did a couple of mock punches.

"I can stretch my whole body, so I can punch people from far away, I can reach high places without climbing and I can turn myself into a slingshot! It's really cool. Oh! Bullets and cannon balls don't work on me, cause I'm rubber, it really freaks people out, it's funny!"

Mario was really enthused; his whole face was glittering with awe. He had let go of Luffy, in favour of fluttering next to him a little, lifting off the wooden planks a little each time before he would descend back down, causing a slight air current to whisper past me.

I felt my stomach twist with envy. I missed being able to do that kind of thing, sure I wasn't a bird, but I could control the wind flow around me and that let me fly or hop around weightlessly.

My eyes dropped to the shackles at my wrists, a familiar feeling bubbled to the surface, grinding my teeth with absolute loathing.

I swear one day when these things are off...

"I'm mostly a kicker, I fly up really high then drop down on people. It's kind of annoying when I don't have a lot of space to fly, what I am meant to do then, yoi?"

"Huh, can't you fight without bein' a bird?"

"What do you mean? Why wouldn't I fight as a Phoenix, yoi?"

"Well sometimes you can't use your devil fruit, Dragon can't use his right now, but he can fight, even with broken hands"

I glanced up at the mention of my name, what Luffy said was surprisingly responsible. You couldn't always rely on your fruit to bail you out.

"I guess that does make sense, Pops said something similar when we were in the infirmary earlier, yoi"

Who was Pops? His dad was on this ship too?

"He's strong, so you should listen. You can't fight if you can't fight. That's why I learned how to use haki, so I could fight Logias"

"Luffy you can use haki?"

"Yeah, I trained for two years to learn it."

Mario had a look of wonderment playing across his features. Wow, Luffy had someone looking up to him. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"I've tried learning it but I haven't had any luck, then again if it took you two years to learn then it must be hard to master, right, yoi."

"Yeah, it took a lot of work! It was worth it though."

Mario went quiet for a moment, walking with his hands tucked under his arms, deep line of thought pulling up his lips.

"Hey Pineapple?"

Mario's face twisted with annoyance, his mouth turning down in an irritated grimace.

I sighed warily, turning to glare at Luffy. Seriously if he was going to make friends with someone, the least he could do was remember their name.

"Luffy don't be rude! His names Mario!"

The blonde growled under his breath, several swear words were audible, he bristled even more.

"I'm Marco! My name is Marco!"

Oh...

I was definitely closer than Luffy was at least.

"Hey Marco?"

Luffy tried again, looking extremely pleased with himself for using his proper name. Mari-co. Marco, huffed a little, not bothering to answer.

"What burned you? You're a fire bird so how did you burn?"

Actually, that was a surprisingly good question, how did he get those injuries?

The Phoenix swiftly forgot about the misnaming incident, instead he absently prodded the bandage around his eyes.

"Ah, right you guys were pillaging the kitchen so you probably don't know, yoi"

Luffy started chuckling to himself, he was such an easy person to amuse. While I winced at the comment, my eyes drifted towards the Yonko in front of us, he hadn't reacted, to be honest he hadn't really done much of anything since we started walking.

"Right, so we landed on an island yesterday to get some supplies and stuff, me, Vista and Jozu wanted to go to town-"

He paused, before elaborating

"-Vista and Jozu are my brothers, they're apprentices like me, which means that we got to get permission to go into town –"

Luffy was starting to lose interest, he yawned before interjecting.

"Yeah, but what happened?"

Marco scowled having been interrupted, he seemed to get the message though. Hurry up and tell the story.

"Anyway, yoi. We were just minding our own business when we found by Marines-"

This time I butted into the story.

"Hang on, you were found by Marines, who were they? Did you get attacked by them?"

Marco jumped slightly, whirling in my direction. I realised he was probably surprised that I was talking to him. It's not like I had spoken to him directly before.

"Uh, yeah yoi... I held off a lava guy while my brothers escaped, I don't know what his name was though, yoi"

A lava man? I hadn't heard of him before.

"Sakazuki..."

A dark foreboding voice said, it was a hollow sound with layers of anger beneath it.

The owner of the voice was none other than Luffy, his eyes were hidden under his mop of black hair, his normal joyful personality was gone. A blank expression would have been better this, there was so much hatred on his face. It rolled off him like a dark suffocating aura. This person didn't even feel like the same Luffy.

I found it incredibly disturbing, that kind of look didn't belong on his face, it felt so fundamentally wrong.

Luffy's hand drifted up to his chest, rubbing the centre of his X shaped scar, even though it was covered up with bandages it was obvious that's what he was doing.

"You shouldn't go anywhere near that bastard, he would have killed you..."

My boy... My boy should never sound like that. He shouldn't look like that. If I ever meet this Sakazuki, I'm going to make sure he never makes my boy act this way.

"One day I'm going to kill him."

I swallowed gulp of air, the chill I got from those words were enough to make me freeze up.

Those words shouldn't belong in his mouth. He was supposed to say dumb stuff, joke about and smile!

Not this.

Marco remained quiet during this time, he was fidgeting nervously. He was evidently feeling the same way I did.

The conversation died for a while after that, we all walked in heavy silence. The mood solemn and uncomfortable.

I was left wondering what had happened in the future to cause that kind of hatred. This Sakazuki must have done something unforgivable.

What that was, was anyone's guess.

I couldn't stand it anymore and I decided to say something, anything that would change this painful silence.

"Soooo, Maurice? Who's your Pops you were talking about earlier, he's on the crew I take it?"

Maurice jerked his head in my direction, he sighed but it seemed relieved.

"My name is Marco,yoi"

"Uh, right sorry..."

"Pops is in front of us"

I blinked not understanding, where was he? The only people here were myself, Luffy, Marco and Whitebeard. Nobody else...

"Huh?"

Marco snorted out a mocking laugh, it was nice to someone smiling again. Even if it was at my expense.

"He's the guy we've been following this whole time"

Okay I was starting to get annoyed with all the jeering this kid was giving me, I didn't get it, we were following the Yonko.

We were following the Yonko...

"Whitebeard's your dad?!"

Marco rolled into himself howling.

Why was this funny!?

Luffy had recovered from earlier and was now taking an interest in what was happening.

"What's going?"

Luffy asked, obviously hadn't been paying attention until Marco was in stitches.

"Whitebeard is Marco's dad"

I said my voice sounded slightly higher than normal; my cheeks burned from embarrassment.

"Why is that funny?"

"You had have been listening to get it, yoi"

Marco wheezed, trying to wipe a tear from his eye but couldn't because of the bandage in the way.

"Aren't you shocked; Whitebeard has a son!"

Well at least it made sense why he was so forgiving with Marco's rude attitude earlier. Mind you if I had done the same rude gesture as he had, but to the old geezer, would have been in a hospital bed.

For some reason this made Marco laugh harder, then it dawned on me didn't he say he had brothers. So, then Whitebeard had three kids?

"Huh, I thought everyone on your crew called him Pops?"

Marco sucked in a breath steadying himself, he was nodding.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you know that Luffy not a lot of people do, yoi"

Luffy nodded sadly, if I hadn't been having a meltdown, I would have probably asked him what was wrong. Before the young captain could answer, I blurted out

"The whole crew! Is this like a Big Mom situation!"

Marco immediately turned offended; he began shaking his head roughly.

"NO,yoi. Pops is nothing like Big Mom!"

The raven burst into a fit of cackles, his face turning red.

"Yeah, Big Mom is nasty old hag!"

The blonde was bobbing up and down with wild agreement.

"Pops is hundred million times better than Big Mom, yoi!"

I was staring at Whitebeard, he hadn't even glanced our way, I was particularly astonished because we were talking about him so openly. Just talking about the Yonko normally made me nervous, speaking about him behind his back was so much worse.

"But Pops isn't our biological parent, yoi"

I gawked at the kid without much understanding.

"I don't get... then why do you call him that?"

Marco smiled lightly; it was full of fondness. He replied as if the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Because he calls us sons"

I frowned puzzled. I couldn't get my head around it, he was the captain, so shouldn't everyone be his subordinate?

"Why would he do that?"

"You don't get, yoi?"

"No..."

"It's because it makes us happy. A lot of us don't have anywhere to go, hell, the world hates us, yoi"

"I still don't get the whole Pops thing though?"

Marco let out an aspirated sigh, he didn't look surprised.

"You don't have to get, most people don't. But just so you know, Pops isn't just a nickname... we all mean it, yoi."

I don't get it! Why would they call him their dad, just to make themselves feel happy? From experience I rather not have a dad, they cause nothing but trouble.

"Hey, not so old guy you're blocking the stairs!"

I jumped at the sound of Luffy's voice, fixing my gaze towards some stairs that he had pointed out. Huh? I hadn't noticed that we had arrived.

Whitebeard didn't react to Luffy's yell, Marco groaned reaching out his hand in front of him, feeling his way over until finding himself next to his leg and he smacked it with an audible whack.

I flinched, was he crazy? I don't care what he called him; this man was still a Yonko!

"Looks like he's out of it again, yoi"

The blonde flew up next to the Yonko's ear, tugging at his long hair with one of his talons and finally shouting

"Pops!"

"Oi? Pops! You listening, yoi?"

Whitebeard jolted slightly, Marco crashed back down on the ground quickly picking himself up, as the Yonko turned his eyes down to the boy.

"Oh, Marco... what's wrong?"

Marco jabbed his finger in the direction of one of the walls, which earned him a confused look off his captain.

"Luffy said you're blocking the stairs, yoi"

"Stairs?"

"To the top deck, remember where were going, yoi?"

He turned back towards the stairs, acknowledging that he was in deed blocking the steps. Whitebeard's eyes slid back to Marco who was still pointing at the wrong place.

Luffy was sniggering he slowly he repositioned Marco so he was in the right direction. I rolled my eyes warily. Such kids...

"Thank you, yoi"

Whitebeard coughed which if I wasn't mistaken was a bad attempt not to laugh at Marco, he began leading our little group upstairs.

I tagged along behind pensively.

Why are things so complicated?