Haruta was woken to the sounds of heavy panting, considering they were able to sleep through Namur snoring, this definitely surprised them. Maybe it was because it was on their side of the room. They weren't sure. Either way they sat up, looking over towards the sound's origin.

They couldn't make out much in the darkness of the apprentice cabin, however they knew exactly who it was coming from. Dragging themselves out of bed, they felt their way over to where Alex was sleeping, masterfully avoiding all the junk on the floor, (they had been saying they'd clean for months) until they were standing over the girl's face.

They pressed their hand to her forehead, immediately jolting away with a sharp hiss as the boiling hot skin came in contact with their own.

"Oh boy..." They muttered to themselves, it's not like Haruta was surprised that Al was ill, but rather that they hadn't expected it to be quite that bad. The head doctor Tam had said to them that she might develop some kind of fever or something, she wasn't exactly in the best condition. The rock thing definitely hadn't helped.

Straightening Haruta sighed, trapesing over to their snoring brother, he really did sound like a bear on steroids and they would not compromise on the matter. Also, it pissed off Namur, so of course they needed to annoy him, it was their job as his younger sibling.

"Nam's wake up!" They shouted down his pointed ear, throttling the Fishman with all their strength. "Whaaaa? Gerroff me!" Namur grumbled, flinging his pillow which smacked Haruta in the face.

"What do you want! I'm trying to sleep Haru go away!"

Haruta dodged the next pillow that was lobbed their way, Namur was notoriously grumpy when first woken up. They couldn't say they really cared; they were used to it. It was their job to wake up their brother in the morning, considering he would sleep through Pops banging on their door and that was hella-loud too.

"Alex is sick. So wake up will you."

Namur was silent for a moment, they couldn't see what face he was making, but if they had to make a guess as to what he was thinking, they would probably go with slow comprehension.

"Oh... she did get sick after all"

"Yeah, my hand almost melted when I touched her"

"Is it that bad? Tam did say she might get a bit ill."

"Yes, I was woken up by her panting and I can sleep through your jacked up bear snoring"

"Tch! I'm not that bad!" Namur snapped, whacking Haruta on the arm causing a jolt of sharp pain, so they retaliated with a slap of their own.

"DO TOO!" They retorted, in response Namur hit Haruta on the side much harder this time, they punched him under the jaw.

"SHUT UP!" The Fishman elbowed them forcefully in the ribs, they kicked him in the stomach.

"YOU SHUT UP! TUNA FACE!" Haruta yelled as they proceeded to bite him, as he pulled their ginger hair "ORANGUTAN!"

"FISH STICKS!"

"PRINCESS GINGERBREAD MAN!"

A loud bang on the wall next door rang out, however it fell on deaf ears as the two siblings continued to fight. The squabble slowly getting louder and louder, until the beating on the wall was drowned out.

On the other side of the wall, Newgate was lying in bed, firm irritated grimace on his face. All he could hear was Haruta and Namur arguing. Normally if he beat the hell out of the wall they'd shut up, however that was not always the case and clearly tonight was one of those.

The man pushed himself out of bed with a sharp angry huff, stomping out of his cabin and storming down the corridor by about 5 feet and opened the door to his loud kids' room.

While most of the time having the apprentices next door was quite nice, other times Newgate really wished their room was the other end of the ship. Why couldn't they be nice and quiet like Marco, Jozu and Vista had been?

He snapped on the oil lamp just on the inside of the room, brightening the cabin enough to make out two kids frozen mid-attack. "What the fuck are you two doing?"

"Ahhhhh... mornin?" Haruta staggered out, they moved away from Namur, who had sat up ramrod straight grinning innocently.

"Try quarter past four in the bloody morning!" The blonde man barked, he was tired and sort of hungover, he was not in the mood for their bullshit right now.

"It's still morning though..." Haruta laughed nervously, Namur planted his face in his hands "Haru, noooo. Just stop..."

"Again! Why the hell are you two fighting!"

They both went blank for a second, as if they had forgotten, then at the exact same time looked each other in the eye, realisation hitting.

"Alex is sick" Namur stated looking somewhat guilty, Haruta nodded in a agreement, mimicking their brothers expression.

The man sighed "Then why didn't come get me instead of arguing with each other"

"Sorry" His kids mumbled in unison, glancing away in shame. Newgate let the subject drop, they were sorry that was the main thing, no good harping on about it.

"Let me have a look..." With that he made his way over to Grumpy, crouching over the young girl, placing the back of his hand on her forehead. He frowned, she was burning, when he brought his hand away it was dripping wet, the kid was sweating buckets.

"Child, turn on the other lamp will ya"

A second later the room brightened even more, until Newgate could see the kid properly. Her face was bright red, drips of perspiration ran down her cheeks, a dark circle was dug under her good eye. Painful breathes were pushed out, shuddering horribly as she would inhale.

"Namur go get Tamantha"

"Wait is she that bad?"

"Mmmm"

"But when Tam checked on her last night, she said she'd only be a little sick, right?" Haru mumbled, they were suddenly looking much more concerned.

"She said 'probably' not 'guaranteed' Doll." Newgate answered softly, as he heard Namur open and close the door, no questions asked. His boy was much more aware of situations, then Haruta generally was. He was just a bit more down to earth then his 13-year-old sibling, who had their head in the clouds 90 percent of the time.

They just didn't take things as seriously; they were more the hit first ask questions later type. Namur would think things over before he did anything, not to say he always did this, but he was most definitely better then some of his older siblings.

That was just the way they were, it was most likely why they constantly butted-heads. That was just the way they were, it was most likely why they constantly butted-heads. Two opposites living in close proximity to each other, were always going to have something to argue over.

Despite that, they did get on extremely well. Whether that was because they were both the only other teenagers or if they just genuinely enjoyed hanging out, it really didn't matter to Newgate, as long as they were happy that's all he needed to know.

"Tam did? Alex didn't look that bad before, she was up and talking and everything." The red-head exclaimed, a little bit of upset in their voice.

"Well, maybe she was much worse then she was letting on..." The blonde man sighed, resting his large hand on his kid's head in attempt to calm them a little.

"Really? How could you hide something like that?" Haruta said gesturing at the ill girl, a look of scepticism playing along their features.

"You'd be surprised Doll..." Newgate answered quietly as he scooped up Grumpy in one arm, making sure she was still wrapped up in her blanket. He wandered over to the scruffy old couch in the corner and slumped into it.

He was promptly jabbed in the back with a broken harpoon, that had been used as a giant dart at some point, having missed the huge target board above. He absently pulled the thing out, handing it over to Haruta, who half grinned taking it. "Thanks, I couldn't pull that one out and Namur wouldn't help."

Newgate only smiled tiredly, before letting his head fall backwards, closing his eyes for a small while. Knowing full well he was probably going to be up the rest of the night. The other, much more important reason was if he acted calm and relaxed, then it would probably make Haru feel much better.

A couple of minutes later he felt Haruta climb up, settling down on his sternum. He couldn't imagine how comfortable that was, but he just left them to it. The man would have probably been quite contented if it wasn't for his new, very sick daughter being in such a state.

He was hoping that Namur and Tam would be back soon. Newgate wasn't big on worrying about things, he had learnt early on in life that worrying wasn't very helpful, it was much better to take care of those concerns as soon as they appeared, instead of letting them loom over his head. However, he wasn't a doctor... as such he couldn't do anything about this current situation. He really hated that. Not to mention the trek over to the other end of the ship was a pain in the ass, it did take a while to walk. Then of course Namur had to wake up Tam, who was a notoriously deep sleeper. Probably not the best trait in a doctor, however once she was up and away, she was nice and efficient, so that was something. With all that stuff to consider, he could only assume that they'd be waiting a little while.

So to summarise Newgate was more then a little stressed out.

Well, at least Haruta had no trouble going back to sleep, they were snoozing away quite happily, not a care in the world. Though that was probably because their father was here, taking care of their sister now, so they had nothing to be anxious about. Which in the man's books was very sweet that they trusted him, but that didn't stop said father from being incredibly stressed out.

Newgate lifted his head up carefully, avoiding any sharp movements that may wake up Haru, his tired eyes peering down at his kids. The 13-year-old was curled up practically absorbed into their green jumper, all he could make out was their wild ginger hair sticking out. He placed his arm under them, as he sat up from his slouched position, praying he didn't accidentally drop the kid. Thankfully they remained as they were, not even a slight reaction to being moved.

The man stood, treading lightly over the floor boards, being sure not to make much noise, as he stopped in front of Haruta's bed. Kneeling down, he swiftly placed them onto the mattress, chucking their cover over them. They grumbled in their sleep, clearly not pleased with being removed from their warm spot on his chest. He sighed, usually he would have left them there, but once Tam came in, having Haru sleeping on him wouldn't be very practical.

Normally he wouldn't have been quite so careful, on most occasions if he'd woken his kid, he would have probably shrugged it off. If they happened to complain at him, he'd probably laugh and tease them or in some cases tell them to bugger off if they were particularly angry at him. This would either shut them up or they would indeed storm off in a huff. Either way he wasn't going to mollycoddle his kids. If they were sharp tongued little brats with him, he would fireback in kind. If they wanted to be laid back and friendly then he would be the same. That was just the kind of father Newgate was.

However, he was also known for just randomly picking up his children, in whatever way he had grabbed them, be it by the scruff of the shirt or even by the leg. He wasn't the gentlest parent in the world, he was clumsy and admittedly part of that was because of how ridiculously big he was.

But he'd be lying if he said that was the only reason, Newgate was quite rough anyway. He wasn't the most well mannered or even the nicest person. He said and did whatever he wanted, if he didn't like something he wouldn't beat around the bush. He could be extremely blunt and rude, not having a single care as to what the outside world thought of him. The Yonko wasn't some kind of saint, he was a pirate and pirates were not good people, there was no point pretending he was.

There were very few things the pirate captain really cared about, there was his family or anything that he deemed to belong to him, like an island he had claimed. Anything else wasn't important. He wouldn't pretend otherwise.

Ruffling Haruta's hair affectionately, the child relaxed once more. Finally, Newgate sucked in another wary breath as he left them alone, going back over to the couch. Quickly studying the thing for anymore sharp objects before he sat down. Satisfied, he sank into the threadbare cushions, groaning softly. He was so fucking tired...

A little whimper came from somewhere, he frowned, not recognising it. Until he suddenly realised it had come from the girl, a pale blue eye was staring up at him. Though the glassy glare made him wonder if she was seeing him, it was distant and unfocused.

"Hey Grumpy, it's alright... you're safe." He soothed, the girl was struggling, her hand reaching shakily for something unseen, as if trying very hard to pull herself out of her feverish state. He was pretty sure she had no clue what was actually happening, but this stubborn little brat was still trying to fight, even if she was barely conscious. He wasn't sure if he should be impressed or concerned.

He delicately pushed her hand down with his own, settling it back onto her chest. Still Grumpy tried to move, however her eye was slowly dropping, until she had fallen back into an uncomfortable sleep.

"What a stubborn daughter I have..." He chuckled gently.

The door suddenly clicked open, in came Tam, followed by a disgruntled Marco and an even more exhausted Namur.

Finally! Newgate gestured towards sleeping Haruta, putting his finger to his lips. Only for Namur to loudly fall over, startling the kid awake.

"WHAT! ARE WE UNDERATTACK! WHERE'S MY SWORD I'LL- Oh, you guys are back-"

They noticed the Fishman on the floor, he's legs sticking up in the air and they burst out laughing "Hey... Namur you're stupid!"

"No! I'm not! It's your fault, I tripped on your crap"

"Not my fault you're walking around with your eyes closed!"

Here we go again...

"Will you two shut up!" Newgate snapped, he was too tired for this...