You felt like hell by Monday morning, news travelled fast around town and now everyone knew your house had been broken into and everyone wanted to know about it. You tried to ignore the questions, the stares. It was bad enough that your Uncle had been pestering you with questions once he found out you had said the guys in the house Saturday night were from that incident. You hadn't mentioned any names though and he could tell you knew exactly who it was too, but you weren't saying. You don't know why you were keeping it a secret that Grant had been in the house, he had been the one that had gotten away and if you just told someone they would handle it straight away. But you also knew that it was your word against his and he would likely already have an alibi.
At lunch you hoped to avoid everyone by going to the roof. Dropping down and resting your back against the wall beside the door you look up into the clear sky and pull your jacket closer around you. You let out a long sigh and close your eyes, ignoring the phone buzzing in your pocket, you couldn't however, ignore the large shadow that suddenly moved over you, opening your eyes you blink up at the large form looking down at you, red hair, eyeliner and lipstick, your locker neighbour,
"You know they're all looking for you," the red head comments,
"I wanted to be alone, is that a crime?" you quip back, he smirks a little,
"To some people, yeah," he chuckles before dropping down beside you, his blonde friend taking a seat in front of you both, "have you even eaten?"
"Do I need to answer that question?" your question makes him laugh again, two other boys turn up on the roof, "I'm guessing this is 'your spot' then?"
"Only when I want to avoid Bonney," he shrugs, "this is Heat and Wire," he nods to the two new comers who kind of simply stare at you for a moment, Heat then offers you a smile whereas Wire simply starts eating his food, "guys this is (Y/N),"
"Huh, not calling me little mouse today?" you turn to him a little and raise a brow,
"Oh, you'll always be little mouse to me, but only I get to call you that," Kid winks and you roll your eyes,
"Are you like this with all the girls?"
"That would require him being able to talk with girls," Wire smirks a little gaining a glare from his friend,
"What do you mean by that?" you ask confused, looking between them, seeing as everyone except yourself and Kid found that funny,
"Kid can't talk to girls," Wire tells you; you stare at the guy for a solid minute before looking questioningly at Kid then back at the others,
"He talks to me, and Bonney, though I can't understand why with her," you shrug and Heat snickers at the comment, "you're not shy..." you have turned back to Kid, "surely..." the fiery haired boy scowls at you,
"Of course not!" he growls,
"Most girls are just intimidated by him," Killer informs you softly, you hum and give Kid a once over,
"It's because you're a giant," you nod, "clearly,"
"Your just small," Kid grumbles,
"No, I'm average, don't mock my height just because your giantness scares away all the weak-willed girls," you tease,
"Girls like that I'm big," he smirks at you, you give him a disapproving glower before responding with a touch of sass,
"It's a shame the angry emo vibe you've got going is giving those girls the impression your over compensating for something," you make a subtle nod down, "so I guess no one will know if you truly match up to the rest of you, well, unless someone's brave enough to ask Bonney," you give him a sweet smile as his friends crack up,
"I like this one, can we keep her," Heat chuckles,
"I agree, she reminds me of Speedy," Wire adds and Killer gives a small nod, Kid is scowling,
"I'm not usually like this, he just brings it out of me," you shrug but smile amused that your annoying Kid a little, "who's Speedy?"
"No one," Kid grumbles before shoving one of his wrapped up sandwiches at you, you stare at it confused, "you need to eat something or you'll collapse again and I'm not getting the walking dead for you again," you snort out a laugh,
"First off, I didn't collapse, it was a panic attack, and second, walking dead? Is that what you call Law?"
"Yeah, he looks half dead half the time," he shrugs, "you got a better name for him?"
"I call him captain sarcasm," you inform him while unwrapping the sandwich, Killer places one of his two bottles of water in front of you and then even Heat and Wire add a couple of snacks in front of you, an apple and an energy bar, "um... thank you... you don't have to..."
"Just take them," Kid orders, you sigh and shake your head before taking a bite of the sandwich then looking at it in surprise, it was pretty good, "you look surprised,"
"It's good,"
"Course it is, I made it," you have to look to the others to see if he's telling the truth, slowly you look back to him,
"Well I'm even more surprised, so, who's Speedy?" he glares hard at you, but you simply stare back and take another bite. Taking a page out of Luffy's book, you just stare and eat and wait, after a couple of minutes he breaks and groans looking away, at this point Killer leans forwards a little,
"Speedy is, was his next-door neighbour," you blink at the blonde, something about this sounded familiar, "She's his best friend, she moved out of town at the beginning of summer," then it clicks, Penguin had told you about her,
"Oh?" you glance to the side at the red head, he's frowning down at his own sandwich with a dark depressed look in his eyes, "So there's another girl that exists that can put up with you, wow," he snaps his gaze to you with a heated glare, "see you're not so bad, clearly only the best kinda girls can see past," you wave your hand indicating him as a whole, "all this," you then throw him a teasing wink,
"Think very highly of yourself do ya little mouse?" he smirks a little, you internally sigh with relief, you didn't like the look that had entered his eyes a few seconds ago. It was clear that this Speedy moving away has affected him pretty hard,
"Not particularly, but then, no one's perfect," you shrug, "but damn, this sandwich is, tell me how you made it dude?"
"Nope, secret recipe," Kid shakes his head with a laugh, as you continue with your back and forth banter, you don't miss the thankful smiles on the other threes faces.
Later that day, once you were at home, your uncle calls you down wanting to talk with you, you prepared yourself mentally for a repeat of the questions he had been grilling you with since yesterday.
"Take a seat," Rayleigh nods to the sofa from his chair looking rather serious. Slowly you sit down, "Don't look at me like that," he frowns, "you're all tensed up as if I'm about to interrogate you,"
"Aren't you?" you raise a brow,
"No, for the moment I will put the subject of the break in on the back burner, this is about the visit to Sabaody this weekend," you sit up straighter, you had almost forgot, almost but not completely, you were getting to go see your mother in hospital for the first time since moving. You missed her so much and talking over the phone simply wasn't enough, the longest you had ever gone without seeing her before now was three days at most so you were excited to see her again. The look on your Uncles face however sends your stomach in knots, "We're going to need to postpone it,"
"What!?" you practically screech, "Why?!"
"Shakky has a seminar she needs to attend, and with how things are at the shop at the moment, I had to come home early this weekend so I wasn't able to secure the materials and so I need to head back there this weekend while the guy is still there, so I won't be able to take you,"
"Then I'll go myself, I've got the car..."
"(Y/N) it's too long a drive for you, and you're not going back to Sabaody alone, not after the events of the weekend, your mother and I are in agreement on this," you stare at him for a moment then shake your head,
"But you promised... you promised when I came here that I could go see her..."
"I know (Y/N) and you will, but it will just need to wait till Christmas,"
"No!" you slam to your feet, you know your being ridiculous, but you just couldn't help it anymore,
"(Y/N)," he sighs,
"You dragged me half way across the country to this damned town! Where I knew no one! You promised me I'd still get to see her but you just expect me to wait! And what if something comes up at Christmas? What if something happens and she takes a turn for the worst? I haven't seen her in over two months!" you storm out of the room as angry tears start flowing, you don't want to listen to him anymore. You head to the front door after grabbing your keys,
"Where are you going?" your Uncle asks rushing after you as you stomp out of the house,
"Anywhere but here!"
"(Y/N)," he tries to stop you but you slap at the hand he reached out to you with,
"No! I hate you!" you shout out, you don't really mean that, you're just upset, and with everything that's happened, it has taken its toll on you. You cover your mouth as your gaze meets your uncles seeing you've caused him pain with your words and immediately regretting it. Then, suddenly your car keys are taken from you grip and tossed to your uncle,
"How about I take this one for a little bit," Thatch places his hands on your shoulders before giving your Uncle a questioning look which he gets a small nod to, then he steers you towards the Newgate house. You're both met by a confused Marco as you enter, "in here sweetheart," he continues to guide you all the way into the kitchen and makes you sit on a stool at the breakfast bar, before turning to Marco and quietly asking him where the others are,
"Sabo's upstairs doing homework, the other two are at the park yoi, what's going on?"
"Nothing to worry about," Thatch then moves around the kitchen, you just sit there staring at the counter as more tears start to fall,
"Um... Thatch..." Marco moves closer to his brother and hisses, "she's crying yoi,"
"Then comfort her," he responds,
"I'm a horrible person," you mumble bringing both men to look at you,
"No, you're not darling, emotions just ran high is all," Thatch then kicks Marco in the leg and nods towards you giving him a pointed look, Marco winces and hops over to sit beside you,
"What makes you think you're a horrible person yoi?" that earns him a glare from his brother, you turn and look up at Marco with teary eyes,
"I said I hated him... I don't hate him, he looks after me, he makes sure I'm happy and he gave me a car... and... I said I hated him," you then drop your head into your hands and sob,
"Dude... I don't know how to handle this yoi..." Marco hisses at Thatch,
"Just give her a hug," Thatch hisses back as he pulls out a pan, Marco awkwardly wraps an arm around you and he instantly tenses as you hug him fully, your crying getting harder, he pats your back,
"I'm sure he knows you don't hate him..." he attempts, "do you mind me asking what caused you to say it yoi?" a silent argument of stares goes on between the two eldest Newgate boys after he asks that,
"He said he can't take me to see my mother this weekend," you sniffle,
"Your mother?" both of them question, you nod,
"She's in the hospital back in Sabaody, we had plans to go visit next weekend, before the thanksgiving rush. I haven't seen her since before I moved here, I've never gone this long without seeing her..."
"You must miss her," Marco says quietly, you nod and hug him tighter, he's almost as warm as Ace is, everything is quiet for a while until the clink of a plate being set on the counter in front of you has you perking your head up a little, Thatch gives you a warm smile as you stare at the plate of pancakes topped with cream, chocolate and strawberries, he also holds out a box of tissues,
"Now dear, why don't you dry those pretty eyes of yours and enjoy this little treat. You leave this problem for me to handle," you pull away from Marco and take the tissues frowning a little, "don't you worry, just eat up, it will help you feel better I promise," he then pulls out his phone and starts typing away, Marco cringes down at his shirt, you both look at it and you also cringe, blushing in embarrassment realising you have left it wet with tears and snot,
"Sorry," you mutter,
"Don't worry yoi," he waves it off and gives you a smile, "sometimes you just got to cry it out. I'll just go change quickly," he slips off his stool then points at your plate, "I'd eat that before Luffy returns, otherwise you will lose it," he then heads out of the kitchen and upstairs. You wipe away the last of your tears and blow your nose before beginning to eat the pancakes. Thatch keeps a simple conversation going with you, mainly asking how you were enjoying living in the town and how school was going. By the time you were finished and he had cleaned and put away everything the front door slams open and Luffy's shouts fill the house,
"I want meat! OW! ACE!"
"DON'T SHOUT DOWN MY EAR THEN YOU IDIOT!" Ace shouts at his younger brother, you giggle when Thatch rolls his eyes, they are still shouting at one another as they come crashing into the kitchen. Both of them freeze though upon seeing you,
"(Y/N)!" Luffy grins widely then races towards you, Ace however grabs the back of his shirt,
"You need a shower before going near anyone else!" he then shoves him towards the direction of the stairs, "I'm sure she will still be here after your suitably mud free," Luffy pouts and looks at you pleadingly,
"I'll still be here, promise," you give him a little smile, he begrudgingly heads up. Ace steps into the kitchen and washes his hands at the sink,
"Dare I ask?" Thatch enquires,
"We ran into Law at the park, he was walking Bepo, and well..." he chuckles lightly, "you know how it rained yesterday... well there's some really big puddles about and well... let's just say Luffy wasn't the only one covered. I'm pretty sure if looks could kill, Luffy would-be stone-cold dead, Law wasn't impressed,"
"So, the dog also got muddy?" Thatch wonders aloud,
"Oh, no, Bepo is still sparkling white, Law however," he shrugs with a snicker and drops onto the stool Marco had recently vacated, "cut our park trip short," he then looks at you and frowns slightly clearly picking up on your recent bout of crying, "you okay?" you give him a little shrug then a nod,
"Course she's fine, she's keeping me company, even tried one of my new recipes," his phone pings and after looking at it, a smile forms, "well that sorts things out," he turns to you, "your uncle has agreed with my suggestion,"
"Your suggestion?" you frown,
"Yes, I suggested I could take you this weekend, that way you would be able to see your mother and you wouldn't be alone either, he's agreed to it, but I think to be safe you should have a little heart to heart with him," you jump off the stool and run around the breakfast bar island to his side and tackle him with a hug,
"Thank you," you could cry again,
"No need for thanks," he chuckles and returns the hug while glancing at Ace and grinning, "I couldn't leave our Ace's little girlfriend all upset, now could I?" you knew he was just jesting to tease Ace, still it brought a blush to your face, you glance over at Ace to find him also blushing lightly,
"I told you to stop that," he scowls, but then a slow mischievous grin flows across his face, he sniffs the air and then grins even wider before yelling at the top of his voice, "LUFFY! THATCH MADE (Y/N) PANCAKES AND NONE FOR YOU!" Thatch stares at his younger brother baffled for a moment, but seconds later, the thundering sound of someone part running, part falling, part bouncing down the stairs can be heard, and a look of pure horror comes to the man's face. Ace launches himself across the breakfast bar island, sliding across it as if he's done it a thousand times, he grabs your hand and quickly pulls you out of the way and towards the games room as a half-naked and still very muddy Luffy launches himself at Thatch,
"I WANT PANCAKES TOO THATCH! MAKE ME SOME!" the boy wraps himself around Thatch chanting 'pancakes' and getting the oldest brother covered with bits of mud in the process,
"Luffy you need to shower first! And now I need a shower too!" Thatch scowls, snickering Ace pulls you away and into the games room,
"That was cruel," you point out,
"Maybe, but it was also funny hmm?" he raises a brow, and as you respond with a chuckle since you can't deny that he's right, he grins wide.
