Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

The two suddenly opened their eyes, different colored orbs meeting for a brief second, both hardened into seriousness, before they gave a slight barely perceptible nod to each other. It must have been around noon, judging by the insane amount of sunlight seeping in through the windows. They had been deep in slumber, Marco crushing Aiko with his weight, though that didn't seem to bother her because she had been sleeping rather soundly. Had been, because the reason for the twos' sudden awakening was something akin to a rat or a small animal. Now if it were any other small animal, sea king, bird, whatever, they wouldn't care. But that small animal or whatever it was, was on the ship. Giving off a small, weak presence.

Neither had to ask if the other had felt its presence, seeing as both had to have woken up for a reason. Marco was the first to get up, semi-grouchy, semi-sleepy expression and only donning his capris as he made a move towards the door to find out just what exactly that thing disturbing his sleep was. He had fallen asleep on Aiko and something just had to disturb him. He didn't say a word as he grabbed the handle a little too roughly and let his Haki take control, showing him where their little unwelcomed guest was hiding.

Aiko watched Marco taking slow and lazy steps out and away from their shared room. She reluctantly got up to follow after him, he was heading towards one of the storage rooms that they used for random junk. Such as rope, ship parts, cannon balls and other miscellaneous things that the two really didn't need. If a problem occurred, they'd usually take care of it before it even came close enough to damaging the ship. Which was part of the reason why they had Sea King meat for dinner way too often.

"Hurry! Look for the treasure." The two pirates' trained ears picked up on a small whisper, from the harsh tone it was most likely a man. Just bandits, but they were wrong to snoop around in the storage areas, most pirates and merchants did keep their treasure safely stashed away in areas like those, but the two only had plain cash on them, so there really was no need. Unlike in their main ships, they had no priceless rugs, ancient tomes, large jewels or piles upon piles of gold. Just plain cash that they kept safely tucked away in their shared room.

"This is just a room for storage, old man." Another whisper, that of a much younger boy.

"Impossible." The older man whispered back, "This would definitely be a place to stash valuables, keep looki-"

His voice suddenly stopped.

They must've heard the footsteps of the two pirates, seeing as how neither Marco nor Aiko made any move to conceal their presence in any way. Aiko stayed back and watched Marco do his thing. The blonde man opened the door to the storage without a care in the world, there were no signs of people and everything was dead silent. But, Marco had Kenbunshoku Haki and with it he pinpointed the two hiding themselves behind a crate full of flammable oil. He rubbed the back of his head in a lazy manner, not really in the mood to deal with these two newcomers, just when had they gotten on the ship anyway? Must've been while they were sleeping. He had been sleeping rather well, the thought of his peaceful sleep being disturbed had him sighing.

"I know your back there, yoi." Marco said clearly, voice dead of all inflection. "Just come out already, so I won't have to hurt you."

The two stayed very still, before the older one came out.

Rubbing the back of his head and putting on a sheepish smile. He had light blonde hair, an unshaved face and had an overall scruffy look about him.

"Hey there." The man greeted Marco who had his usual blank stare trained on the man before him. "I'm Azu."

"And what are you doing here, yoi?"

"Um… well, I saw the ship from our island and when I called out no one answered, so I…" He let the sentence hang, it was too awkward to say to the owners face that they had every intention of robbing the medium sized ship just sailing along.

Marco just kept the man under his gaze, watching him fidget and look around doing his best to avoid the phoenix commanders' eyes. He didn't really feel like dealing with this, he'd much rather sleep in or grab himself a cup of coffee, but his mates weren't here to handle it like usual and he wouldn't let Aiko handle it. The woman would probably –no, definitely- invite the two intruders to eat and have a drink with her. Not that that was much of a problem, but he didn't like the thought of two random men drinking in the ships small mess hall with her.

"What island was that, yoi?" He asked, he could feel Aiko's presence behind him, seemed she had opted to not come in and just wait for him to handle whatever problem the two intruders posed.

"A-ah, it was Cloudburst Island. It's to the East of here, about 15 minutes away by boat."

"And how'd you get here?" Marco eyed the man's expression to check if he was lying in any way.

"By boat." He said as he made a small gesture with his hands trying to indicate that it was a very small boat. "We- I threw a rope up when no one answered."

Marco eyed the man before him once more, before saying clearly, "We're on our way to a different island, so go back to wherever it is you came from, yoi. We don't have any valuables." He gestured with a tilt of his head to the crate Azu had been hiding behind, "Don't forget to bring the brat."

Azu paled, while said brat hopped out of his hiding place with an expression full of defiance. "I'm not a brat, and I have a name!"

Marco raised a questioning eyebrow at the enraged boy, if he was insulted by him calling him a brat then he really was a kid. The boy had a full head of black hair and looked just as scruffy as the man he had come with.

"My name is Kizu!"

Marco wanted to retort that he hadn't asked for the kid's name, but bit his tongue. His constant banters with Aiko were beginning to give him bad habits. He waved a hand aside, as if blowing off whatever the kid said, "Get off the ship, yoi. We've got important business to handle."

"Yes, yes." Azu had easily agreed giving another sheepish smile as both his hands held back the small Kizu who looked about ready to charge at Marco and his overly cocky and demanding attitude.

"Shh… quiet you." Azu whispered into Kazu's ear. "We'll jump him while he escorts out back onto the deck."

Kazu settled down and gave a barely perceptible nod, looking up at the blonde's back, Kazu couldn't put his finger on it, but somehow his gut was telling him not to mess with this guy. He didn't voice any opinions though, even if he saw Azu himself slightly hesitating to jump the man. The tattooed owner before them had a very intimidating aura about him, plus the fact that he wasn't at all on guard around the two meant that he was either extremely overconfident or severely underestimating them, the thought had Kazu's teeth grinding together. They followed the tall blonde out the door, where a woman -in shorts and an overly large shirt- stood waiting with a sleepy look on her face.

Kazu watched as Azu's face exploded in red. Really? What was so appealing? The only thing really exposed was the bottom, even he had seen women expose a lot more, yet Azu was blushing so much. He just didn't understand.

"And these two are?" She asked the phoenix commander.

"Leaving, yoi." He replied with his usual straight face that had her laughing slightly.

"I bet you didn't even offer them a drink." She said frowning.

He scratched the back of his head once more, "They were trying to steal from us."

"Now, phoenix." She began in a scolding tone. "Always offer someone a drink, before you make them leave."

"Oi, oi. Don't push those Red-haired pirate traditions on me, yoi."

She looked at the two behind Marco once more, "And you two are?" Aiko asked, since she clearly wasn't getting an answer from the Phoenix commander that was obviously in a less than pleased mood because of his disturbed sleep.

"I'm Kazu!" The little boy yelled and when he saw his older brother stuttering and seemingly losing the ability to form words into coherent sentences, he yelled once more, "And this is Azu! My brother!"

Aiko looked at the young boy, he sure had a pair of lungs on him. The kid needed to learn the term 'indoor voice.' She eyed the two for a minute longer before turning to Marco, "Alright, let's get them out of here then, hot stuff."

"I thought you were going to offer them a drink, yoi?" He questioned with one eyebrow raised at her.

"They look too young for that stuff."

"I'M NOT A KID!" Kazu yelled out.

Aiko looked towards the young boy, the kid reminded her of a young Luffy begging them to take him out to the sea, even cutting his own face to show just how serious he was. She'd love to see him again, the kid was one helluva crybaby. She'd bet good money that he still was. Just what kind of mates did he have, Aiko wondered, mates no doubt crazy enough to follow such an empty headed captain. Though… the same could be said about her.

She grinned to herself before sticking out her tongue towards the young Kazu, "No one called you a kid, bleeeehhhh."

The boy's face was glowing red, seething in a mix of anger and embarrassment as Marco shook his head at the woman before him. Yup, no matter how you looked at it, she was definitely a part of Shanks' crew. In one way or another, all the members of the red haired Yonko's crew were stupidly childish in their own ways. Well, except maybe Benn Beckman, when they'd run into the Whitebeard pirates Marco had never seen the man be anything, but stoic and serious at all times though the man was most likely just being cautious, in which case he understood the man's seriousness.

Marco shrugged it off, moving to walk alongside Aiko as they led the two intruders to the deck. Once they got there, they were met by the blinding rays of the sun. Marco looked towards the side of the ship, where a rope was tied tightly around the mast. The rope was pulling along a much smaller ship with no sails whatsoever. Had the two paddled all the way to them? That must've sucked, but he had to hand it to them for their effort, Tofu after all had its paddle systems on plus the wind blowing them forward. The fact that they caught up to them from paddling alone was amazing.

"Alright…" Marco untied the rope around the mast, both Azu and Kazu looked at each other wondering if they should jump the man now. But the way the raven haired woman had her eyes trained on the two had them hesitating. When Marco finished untying the rope, he effortlessly reeled in the ship. Once it was about a meter or two away, he handed the rope to Azu, who struggled to hold onto it. The waves pulling the ship in a completely different direction.

"Hehe…" Azu chuckled nervously, trying with all his might not to let go of the ship, how the hell was that man able to reel it in like that? The propeller of the ship they were currently on was making all the water move away from the ship, making their little tiny rowboat hard to handle. "Well, we'll be off no-"

Azu was cut off by a large Sea King coming up from the water and completely swallowing the entire ship he had been struggling to keep ahold of whole, before it went diving back into the ocean to wherever it had been hiding.

…

…

…

"EHHHH?!" Both Azu and Kazu yelled with eyes bulging and mouth gaping at what just happened.

Marco and Aiko stared blankly at the ship that had just been eaten whole. Did that seriously just happen? Aiko didn't actually think Sea Kings ate ships. What the fuck was wrong with that Sea King? Or maybe all Sea Kings ate ships and she just never knew because she had never been on a very small ship. In fact, Tofu was the smallest ship she had ever sailed.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" She laughed loudly, wiping a tear from her eye. "Seriously?"

Marco blankly blinked and just looked at the two with his usual lethargic expression. Though his voice had amusement playing in it, "This is why you don't go out into the Grand line with a small ship, yoi."

The two were down on the ground, slamming their fists into the deck as they cried. "Our ship… Our beautiful ship…"

Azu looked towards the two with a pleading expression, "Please bring us to our isl-"

"No." He was cut off by the twos simultaneous response.

"Eh? B-but… How are we supposed to get back?!"

"I told you, we're doing something important, yoi." Marco muttered, no matter how he looked at it, going to their island was a complete waste of time.

"We can send you off in barrels." Aiko suddenly suggested, completely reading Marco's thoughts that this detour would be a colossal waste of time. She hummed slightly, thinking if there were any barrels in storage that they weren't using at the moment.

"Or those empty crates we got for the vegetables, yoi." Marco recommended back, he remembered putting away a few crates into storage a few days ago.

"Ah! That's a good idea, phoenix!"

"U-ugh…" Azu was beginning to lose all faith in the two as they kept talking, apparently already decided on how they were going to get him and his little brother back to their home island. He turned to Kazu, "These guys are pure evil, pure evil inside and out, Kazu." He shook his little brother that was still dumbfounded by the Sea King earlier. "This all happened because we helped out that weirdo running away from that restaurant."

Kazu felt a hand land on his shoulder, he turned to see the blonde tattooed owner staring straight at him in the creepiest way possible, "What did you just say, yoi?"

The much younger blonde paled as he tried his best to answer, "E-e-ehhh… u-umm… This guy was asking about a guy named B-b-blackbeard and we showed him where he was, b-b-but then the restaurant thought we were friends and are forcing us t-t-to pay back the bill, th-th-that's why we c-c-ca-came here to stea-"

The blonde cut him and his stuttering off, "What did he look like, yoi?"

"U-uhmm… Black hair, freckles, tattoos…" He made a gesture to his body, "Totally ripped."

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Aiko laughed happily, "Makes me really wanna meet that kid. All the rumors about him being smoking hot is definitely true." Aiko looked at Marco, "This is great, great coincidence. Nonetheless, I think we should continue to Jaya though, but it's your call phoenix. He's your mate after all."

He shrugged slightly, rolling over the options they had in his mind. The first option was that they could place these guys in crates and continue onto Jaya, where there was a sighting of Teach, if Teach was seen no doubt Ace would follow. But the main problem with this course of action was that they had no idea if Ace had already gone to Jaya or would skip it entirely. But, skipping Jaya Island wouldn't be thorough, but if Ace had new info then he could afford to skip it. Marco sighed, there were too many variables. Too many holes in this option, the only guarantee they had was that they'd be able to get information on Teach, which by itself was a very valuable thing and reason enough to go to Jaya.

The other option would be to go to Cloudburst Island and follow directly on Ace's trail. But, Ace would no doubt do his damned hardest to avoid them, no matter how stupid the second division commander acted, he was anything but. The fire commander must already know that he and Aiko were sailing to bring him back.

Marco mentally cursed the incompetence of the Vivre Card and how it couldn't tell where exactlyits owner was.

"When was this, yoi? When did you last see him?" Marco questioned.

"E-eh? That was about four days ago."

They had gotten the information on Teach two days ago.

"Are you sure it was four days ago, yoi?"

"Y-yea. The guy even bowed goodbye and everything."

Aiko raised a questioning eyebrow, but Marco moved on to more important matters.

"Blackbeard, yoi." Aiko could hear the fierceness in which Marco spit out the name. "You said you knew where he was."

"Y-y-yeah…" Azu muttered, "He's always patchin' Kazu up." They looked at Kazu who seemed at a loss on what to say right now. "He's a great doctor, y'know? It's no wonder even eccentric people like that guy go to see him."

'Doctor?'

Marco mentally face palmed. Yes, if Ace went to go visit a doctor with the same name he really was thorough. But he took back everything he just thought about the pyro commander only acting stupid. The man probably went ballistic after hearing the name Blackbeard and immediately went after him without first finding out if that man was actually Teach.

Ace was a temperamental impulsive idiot.

"That idiot." He gave Aiko a look showing her his resolve and doubts about the next destination, a look she just grinned at. He somehow tried to explain his choice to her without sounding like a mushy older brother, "He might not even stop by Jaya Island, yoi."

"I know." She replied, "But I still think that's where we should go." She looked towards the general direction of Jaya, "In my gut I feel Ace won't stop there either, but," She looked straight at Marco, those bright honey eyes captivating him as they always did. "Information on Teach will be there."

He looked at her, he couldn't deny her argument. Plus, the fact that her own instincts were telling her to go to Jaya, Marco knew that Shanks' didn't just let some newbie come out to sea with him. He sent her because he trusted her and Shanks' -contrary to popular belief- was no fool. He was a revered Yonko that trusted her instincts as a fellow pirate that meant Marco had every reason to as well.

He closed his eyes and tried to clear his head to think. Information on Teach or information on Ace? Which was more important? Which would bring them closer?

The choice he made in the next ten seconds could determine whether it took a few months or a few days to find the second division commander.

The weight was heavy.

He instinctively backed away when he felt something unpleasant on his forehead, opening his eyes to see that Aiko had flicked him. Not just any flick either, she flicked him with Haki. He grabbed her scarred hand, the thought of asking her what happened to her previously dainty hands once more registering in his mind.

"Are you worried?"

He didn't speak, nor make a move to and with the absence of his usual words and actions, she took it as an answer.

"If you are, then don't you already know our next destination, tough guy?"

Marco sighed, this woman knew him way too well. Perhaps that was a bad thing, she was from a rival crew after all. Or perhaps it was good as well, he could rely on her to make decisions without the weight of worrying about a fellow mate. But, just this time he'd be selfish with his choice. Because in the end, his mates were the most important and getting information on Teach came second to getting information on Ace in every Whitebeard Pirates books.

If he made the wrong choice here, he wouldn't regret it because how could he go to Jaya Island when that idiot was most likely doing stupid things and getting caught 15 minutes away from their current location,as a mate and as a brother he really couldn't help but be worried. With that thought in mind, there was no doubt about their next destination.

He gave her another look, this time with no doubts in mind. A look full of resolve in his choice, giving her hand a firm squeeze before letting it go and placing his hands on his hips and adopting his usual confident stance. Looking at the siblings that had been quiet through his and Aiko's serious discussion, he finally said, "We'll bring you back and pay up that debt, in exchange we need you guys to help us find out where the freckled idiot you saw went."

The two nodded.

"Hey, Phoenix." Said Phoenix looked over at Aiko, still in her sleepwear and staring right at his exposed chest with no shame whatsoever. "Not that I don't love the view," He swore that she was slowly trailing her eyes up and down his body just for the sake of driving him insane, "but you need to put some clothes on."

He smirked.

A/N: I'm sososososo sorry for the lateness of this chappie, but I had to go somewhere and I forgot to bring my laptop charger! It was horrible, all my files were stuck in a dead laptop... T_T Thanks fro the reviews and I'll be posting an Ace story for sure, after I think about a good plot and stuff because I don't want to use my Marco ideas for my soon to be Ace story, then I'd run out of One Piece juices.

ANYWAY, AS ALWAYS, PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW!