A/N: Beta by Navigator101, updated on 10/22/18.

Chapter 7

Two wrongs don't make a right,
but they do make a good excuse.

- Thomas Szasz

Marco noticed when he lost Luffy's interest as he explained Haki to the trio. The boy's eyes started to wander, exploring what they could from the grove that Moby Dick was anchored in. Before the kid could poke at the bubble that floated up from the ground, Marco called his attention back to them.

"Now, pay very careful attention," he told the two older boys. "Luffy, avoid all my attacks but no attacking back. Can you do that-yoi?" Once Luffy nodded in understanding, Marco launched a series of kicks at the boy, a little slower than usual, all of which were easily evaded just by side-stepping them all. "That is one way of using Observation Hak-yoi," Marco explained once he was done. "If you know when and where an attack is coming, then they can be easily evaded with minimal movement to conserve energy. Another is one that you already know about-yoi. Luffy, I'm going to go out on a limb on this, but how many people are on this island?"

Luffy tilted his head for a long moment before he scrunched up his face, "Too many."

"Is the number too high for you to count-yoi, or is it because you can't see the whole archipelago?"

"Too many people? But," the boy frowned in thought, "Bekky is coming with somebody I don't know."

Marco paused to look at the boy for a moment, processing what was said about the member of his division. "Did you say Bekky is coming this way?" Luffy nodded. "Are you sure? How can you tell it's Bekky?"

"It's Bekky," the boy said confidently. "Bekky is Bekky."

"I see," the commander said thoughtfully, before an idea hit him. "Do you know where Pops is-yoi?"

"That way," Luffy pointed somewhere to his left after a short pause.

"Thatch?"

"That way," this time he moved his finger slightly to the right.

"How long until Bekky gets here-yoi?" At this point, Marco had already confirmed that someone was indeed heading their way and was about ten minutes out from them.

"Soon?"

Marco sighed and turned back to the two confused boys. "What he's demonstrated is a higher form of Observation Haki-yoi. I personally have never met anyone who can differentiate who's who. Normally, you can tell when someone is near or where a person is hiding-yoi. I'm actually curious to know if he had this skill before Doflamingo or if that bastard did something," he muttered the last part to himself. Marco continued, "I've already explained two forms of Haki. We'll leave armament for next time and focus on observation first. Both of you come and attack me and try to dodge my attacks."

Luffy took a seat at the base of the grove and watched them spar before he got bored again. He really did try to pay attention at first but didn't understand what Marco was trying to explain. All he understood was the man was trying to explain this haki-thing, whatever that was. He didn't want to fall asleep because of the unknown person that was coming with the First Division member. There was no telling what kind of person they were. Though, the person was with Bekky, so it should be safe?

He tried his best to stay awake, but he was so bored. There was only so much he could do with the bubbles that kept popping up. So he picked up some rocks around him and started throwing them at Marco to help his brothers out. If he accidentally hit his brothers, well, that was their fault for jumping in the wrong place. He snickered.

The next thing he knew, Luffy was enveloped in a bubble that had formed right under him. He stared at it in fascination as it slowly formed and moved up his body. After it covered his small body, it started to float upward with him in it. The boy stared in awe as he continued upward. With a huge smile of excitement, he watched as his brothers and Marco got further and further away, growing smaller and smaller as he floated above them.

Then realization hit him. The excitement of an adventure popped, just like the other bubbles around him once he made it above the groves. Panicking, he started crying for his brothers to come and get him. He didn't know how to get back down, and if his bubble popped, he'd fall. He was sure a fall from this height would hurt a lot. If he got hurt, his brothers would be sad. That thought alone made him cry even harder.

All of a sudden, a loud pop resounded around him. The sound itself startled him enough to make him stop crying for second, before he realized what had happened. He then screamed as he began to descend so fast he couldn't open his eyes from the air pressure.

Ace, Sabo, and Marco stopped what they were doing when they heard Luffy yelling for them. The three of them looked at the tree where the boy had been and saw that he was no long there. This time they heard crying from above them and looked up just in time to see the bubble Luffy was in pop.

Marco moved his arms out to transform them into fiery wings and was ready to take off into the air, when a movement to his left caught his attention. It was Bekky. His division member had already climbed the large mangrove and was halfway up when he kicked off into the air and caught Luffy. The man effortlessly twisted in the air, to avoid having the boy in his arms be crushed, and rolled once they reached the ground so their landing wouldn't hurt as much. Once Bekky was on the ground and sitting up, they saw Luffy clutching the man around the neck so hard that Bekky was having a hard time breathing.

"Lu-," he croaked, patting the hysterical boy's arm, "air. Let go."

The three and one other man they didn't know, rushed over to check on them. Ace and Sabo had to pry the boy off, letting the man get his much needed air supply back into his lungs.

"You okay there, buddy-yoi?" Marco asked, kneeling next to his crew mate with his hand on the man's back.

"Yeah," he breathed out as he rubbed his neck. "What was the brat doing up there?"

"Looks like he somehow got himself in a bubble in the ten minutes we left him alone-yoi," Marco gave a worried look to Luffy, who was now sobbing in Sabo's chest.

"It's okay, Lu," Sabo tried to soothe the poor boy. "You're okay, now." He and Ace repeated the words until Luffy calmed down.

"What happened?" Ace asked softly once the boy was down to only sniffles.

"The bubble ate me and took me away," Luffy wailed again, causing Sabo to hug him tighter, rocking him in his arms.

"It's okay. No bubble's going to take you away from us. Ace and I will make sure nothing will take you away from us."

"Promise?" the boy sniffled as he looked up at the both of them with eyes full of hope.

"We promise," Ace smiled as he ruffled Luffy's hair.

"Great. Now that we have that all settled-yoi," Marco called their attention back to him, "who's this?" He jerked a thumb to the stranger crouched on the other side of Bekky.

"Oh, yeah!" Bekky brightened and slapped the guy on the back. "This is my old best buddy, West. We just ran into each other. We haven't seen each other in years. West, this is my commander, Marco."

"Oh? And how did you end up on Shabaody-yoi? I thought Bekky was raised in West Blue," Marco asked with a raised eyebrow.

"After Bekky left to become a pirate, I sailed around on various merchant ships to offer my service as a guard. Next thing I knew, one of the ships I was on was headed to Grand Line," West shrugged. "Luckily, I fought with Bekky enough when we were younger, so I had enough experience to hold my own. Had a few close calls though. The last ship had a rare tiger they wanted to sell here. My contract with them is over and here I am, waiting for another ship to come along to offer my services to."

"I asked if he'd be interested in joining Pops's crew," Bekky grinned.

The three men turned their heads toward the sound a loud growl. "Hungry," Luffy said from his perch on Sabo's lap, drool dripping from his mouth. "Tiger?" He tilted his head to look longingly at his brothers.

Ace and Sabo both turned their heads to Marco.

"Sorry, kid," Marco said, gaining Luffy's attention. "There's no tiger on this island-yoi."

The boy's stomach growled once more. "Crocodile?"

"NO CROCODILE!" both Ace and Sabo punched Luffy's head.

"WHY?" the boy whined at his brothers as he rubbed his pained head.

"Kids!" Marco called their attention. "Thatch will be back in time for lunch. Just wait another hour-yoi."

"But I'm hungry now."

Marco looked at the boy to tell him to be patient, but the look he was given back was just too pitiful. If he didn't know any better, the First Division Commander would have thought Ace and Sabo taught Luffy that wide-eyed look just so he could get anything he wanted. No. Just another hour. He just had to distract Luffy for another hour. Marco heaved a sigh. "How about this. I'll get you a snack if you can knock Bekky off his feet-yoi." Here he gave Bekky a meaningful look.

"Excuse me," West said, feeling a little lost and confused, "What's with the kids?"

"These," Bekky said with a flourish as if presenting something amazing, "are our very own -"

"Troublemakers," Marco interrupted. "They're troublemakers, that's what they are. Anyway, Pops isn't here right now-yoi. You can help me train these two while we wait for him. I need Bekky to help with chibi." He jerked a thumb over to Luffy. "He's two handfuls and a half. I swear the kid can't sit still and stay out of trouble-yoi."

"It's not Luffy's fault!" Ace huffed at Marco.

"That's right," Sabo agreed, hugging Luffy tighter to himself. "It's not Luffy's fault he's stupid."

"I would have to agree-yoi," Marco gave them a bland look as he teased them. "I blame you two for his stupidity."

"Hey!" they both shouted as Luffy giggled at them.

Marco picked the small boy up and tossed him over to Bekky, who caught the boy easily. "Nothing too overboard and bare hands only-yoi," he instructed them.

"Are you guys seriously sailing with these brats?" West asked, disbelief clear in his voice.

"You got a problem with that?" Ace and Sabo asked defensively.

West looked at the kids then to Marco for an indication of anything, a trick, confirmation, something.

Marco only shrugged and pointed to their ship, where he saw three men, who'd seen better days, tied up and unconscious. A few of his division members had to take a couple of their row boats to dump the dead ones out in the middle of the sea. "I suggest you don't underestimate the brats-yoi." He tossed a staff to West. "Don't go easy on them."

"All right!" Sabo cheered.

"Someone easier than Marco!" Ace followed.

West turned his head to look at the three unconscious men once more, noting their bruised and bloodied state, then back to the kids. "I'd rather not fight kids, no matter how strong they are." He rubbed the back of his head as he gave Marco an embarrassed look, before turning his head to where Bekky was currently teasing Luffy about the kid's weak punches, only to grab his shin in pain when Luffy kicked him, pouting.

West jerked a thumb over to his friend. "I'd rather play with him."

"Oh, no, you don't. You're playing with us!" Ace and Sabo cried out as they launched themselves at the man, who immediately brought up his staff to block their kicks.

He grunted at the force of the kick, taking a step back to keep himself from falling backwards. The next thing he knew, West was blocking this side and that side, defending himself from a couple of kids aiming to maim him. All the while, the kids still had enough breath to continue yelling at him to keep away from their baby brother, along with other profanities he didn't think kids their age should even know the meaning of. Yup. Definitely pirate kids.

Unsure of how to handle these two fireballs, the man turned to look at Marco for assistance, only to see the commander raise an eyebrow at him as if asking, 'Aren't you going to fight back?' West raised his own eyebrow to ask, 'You really want me to attack them?' The reply he got back was a shrug.

West ducked an incoming kick aimed for his head as he sighed and hoped the Phoenix wouldn't kill him if he accidentally hurt the kids badly.

Ace and Sabo both jumped away the moment they noticed the change in the man's stance. They nodded at each other before going back to attacking the man. This time Sabo went behind in hopes of getting into his attacker's blind spot.

Five minutes into the renewed fight and the two boys' continued beat down, Marco finally spoke up, but it wasn't to stop the fight. "Don't just watch with your eyes-yoi, sense it."

Really, West thought it was about time to stop this one sided spar. These kids were going to end up as two walking bruises the next day.

The little pep talk seemed to have worked or something because the kids were getting hit less and less and dodging more. It was half an hour later when the three of them were on the ground panting.

"I give," the blond child wheezed.

"Food," moaned the brunette.

Marco finally stepped away from his post at the tree trunk and turned to the other two grove occupants. "Bekky, take Luffy with you to fish up something to eat. Thatch should be back by the time you catch something-yoi."

"Bait!" Luffy practically demanded as he pointed to their four captives.

Marco shrugged, and Luffy cheered as he dragged Bekky over to the captives with him.

Moments later, West was startled upright when he heard screaming. He looked out to sea where he saw his friend and the small kid laugh as their bait screamed and wiggled to and fro from his place tied to the end of a pole.

"I thought he was joking," West said disbelievingly.

Ace huffed as he turned over to lay on his stomach and perch himself on his elbows to watch his brother fish. "I hope a sea king eats him."

West looked at Marco who was also watching the duo out in the small boat with disinterest.

"He deserves it," Sabo said in the same position as his brother. "They wanted to kidnap Luffy."

"Don't worry-yoi," Marco placed a hand on West's shoulder. "We were planning on killing them anyway. Seems some people forgot that no one messes with Whitebeard's family-yoi. Besides, we're pirates, if you haven't noticed. We kill if we feel like it. Don't tell me you're not okay with that-yoi."

"No, no. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I haven't killed anyone either," West scratched the back of his head. "It's just that…I mean…kids!" He really didn't know any other way to explain his shock.

"These kids are pirates too-yoi. It doesn't matter their age. They have their reasons to be here, just don't think too much about it-yoi," Marco patted the other man's shoulder before walking away to set up an area for the Fourth Division to cook.

West and the two kids stayed where they were in uncomfortable silence as they watched the other two in the boat. They were startled some unknown amount of time later when Thatch plopped himself in between West and Sabo. "I hope they aren't planning on letting whatever they catch eat that guy," Thatch said as if he'd been there with them the whole time. "That wouldn't taste too good."

"Oh," Ace said with a frown. "Can we just feed them to the other sea kings then?"

"Of course, you can," Thatch reached over Sabo to ruffle the boy's dark hair. "Marco says they're all yours, so have at it. Just make sure it's not any that we'll be eating."

"Thatch?" The commander looked down at the blond, seeing the alarmed look on the boy's face. "I think there's a problem," Sabo pointed out towards his little brother.

Thatch turned his head to follow the finger just to see a sea king towering over the small boat.

"Marco! Luffy's doing it again!" he called out as if he were a child tattling on one of his siblings for doing something stupid, before jumping into the ocean to swim to the pair.

"What the fuck!" they could hear the First Division Commander's frustrated voice as it came near. West, Ace, and Sabo's eyes never once strayed from Luffy's boat, in fear that they'd miss something. "They were only out there for twenty minutes-yoi. How can they get into trouble already?"

Then the trio on the ground felt a gust of wind pass over them and saw a fiery blue-gold bird flying towards Luffy.

"So," West said as he dragged out the vowel, "this happens often?"

The two kids shrugged, eyes still out at sea, watching Marco take over Bekky's hold of Luffy, who wouldn't let go of the sea king's whiskers. Thatch finally pulled himself up and into the boat and managed to punch the beast unconscious.

"Marco insists that we find trouble just sitting in a corner," Sabo said. "That's completely untrue."

Ace nodded in agreement with his brother. "Like that time when we were really sitting in a corner, hiding from Blamenco. A bird just came out of nowhere and took off with Luffy."

"Trouble finds us," they both concluded in unison.

"I see," was all the baffled man could manage.

Rayleigh joined them a few minutes later, watching the struggle on the small boat. The four of them watched as Marco flapped his fiery wings frantically, with his clawed legs pulling Luffy, trying to save them from being dragged into the sea with the sea king. Bekky, with help from Thatch, managed to secure the sea king with a rope and somehow kept their boat afloat with its heavy luggage.

Marco finally landed on the boat, alongside his siblings, and that was when the three of them started scolding the poor boy. Luffy in turn, argued right back at them with his arms going this way and that way as if it would help prove his point. Their bait had fallen overboard earlier and was now drifting alongside their lunch, his ropes tangled in one of the sea beast's fin. Ace and Sabo held back a snicker as the boat came closer to shore.

"- go of the sea king-yoi," Marco scolded.

"Because! You said catch lunch. So we catch lunch. If I let go, then we has no lunch," Luffy argued.

"I don't think he meant to catch something big enough to eat us," Bekky moaned in his hands. "We could have caught something smaller."

"That take too long. This one is better. It's lots bigger and have more meat."

"Luffy," Thatch, dripping wet from his earlier swim, placed a hand over the boy's shoulder, "that thing could have eaten you."

"No, it won't. Bekky was there. He won't let the mean sea king eat me," Luffy crossed his arm as if that would end the argument.

Bekky picked the boy up and gave him a bone crushing hug. "Luffy," he wailed into the boy's hair, "your faith in me is so misplaced. Sure, I would have tried, but there's no way I could have stopped that sea king from eating you by myself. So don't do that again."

"I thinks you can," Luffy said with his small hands on either side of the man's face. "All you do is let go of me and punch the sea king like Thatch did."

"Who in their right mind would even think of letting go?" Thatch smacked the side of Luffy's head.

"But if you let go, you has a better chance to punch it," the boy said has he rubbed his sore head, a scowl clear on his little face.

Marco heaved a sigh before plucking Luffy from Bekky's arms and tossing the boy to his brothers. "There's no point in trying to talk sense into the kid. You'd have better luck talking to a rock-yoi."

"But Marco," Thatch whined, pointing to his wet hair, "look what happened to my magnificent hair! And it's all your kid's fault!"

The First Division Commander immediately whirled around to face the head cook with a scowl on his face. "How is he my kid?"

"You're in charge of them; therefore, they're your kids," Thatch grinned.

"Hey, Thatch," Luffy twisted himself in Ace's arms to face the other man, "what's mag-chicken hair? You keep chicken in your hair? Where is it? I wanna see."

They all erupted into laughter as Thatch sputtered about his hair and chickens, doing his best to explain to the boy that he doesn't keep chickens in his hair.

"Aww. Then why do you always shape it like bread? Not to keep the chicken inside?"

"BREAD?! My hair is not shaped like bread! How dare you!" Thatch lunged for Luffy, who jumped out of Ace's arms and ran away, laughing at the new game they were playing and still not understanding what he said wrong.

-*/-*/-*/

After the group finished eating, Thatch went off with Bekky and West to clean everything up with West mumbling about how much the boys ate.

Rayleigh eyed the two older boys, who were busy wiping Luffy's face. "What have you boys learned of haki so far?"

"Marco showed us Observation Haki, but he used Luffy to demonstrate," Sabo said.

"We learned about Armament too, but he didn't show us how to use it yet," said Ace. "We only know that it hardens parts of our bodies and makes our attacks stronger."

Rayleigh's only response to them was a grin. "Is that so," Rayleigh said to the two older boys. "It's also a good way to have an upper hand on people like Marco, who can't be hurt by normal attacks. If you come across another Logia user, it'll help a lot. How about a demonstration?"

Without warning the coater attacked Marco, who was speaking to their captain. Luffy stared with wide eyes. They'd never seen Marco being pushed back before, or seen any attack, be it physical attacks or with a weapon, land on the man before. They would usually go through the man's body in pretty blue and gold flames.

"That's awesome! Never seen anyone land a hit on Marco before," Sabo said with stars in his eyes, along with Ace and Luffy.

"Like I said, very useful against fruit users like Marco," Rayleigh chuckled.

"Okay, okay. Let's get you guys cleaned up-yoi. That's all we'll do for today," Marco said as he panted from the sparing match. Though it wasn't much of a spar when he was mostly defending himself from the former First mate of the late Pirate King.

Luffy was the first on deck and exclaimed at the new addition to the ship and started jumping up and down on the bubble. "Look, Ace, Sabo! Bubble ship!"

"Stop, Luffy," Sabo yelled, "What if you pop it?"

Rayleigh laughed from the ground. "Don't worry. Just jumping around like that won't pop the coating."

Once everyone made it back to the ship, they were ready to depart. The boys looked on in excitement as the crew got the ship ready to sail under the sea. Luffy ran around the deck excitedly as they sank.

"Next stop, Fishman Island," Marco announced to the boys.

"What's Fishman?" Luffy asked him.

"Namur is a Fishman." Marco looked at Luffy's confused face and tried to explain. "They look like they're half human and half fish."

A look of understanding crossed the boy's face. "Oh. Does that mean you're a birdman, since you part bird?"

That had everyone near them laughing. Luffy ignored them to run up to Namur. "We get to meet your friends?"

The fishman laughed. Truthfully, he was surprised none of the boys were afraid of him when they first met. They didn't treat him any different than anyone else on the ship. The first reaction most people would show when they saw him is fear. The kids weren't afraid of him in the same way most people were. At first they were afraid of everyone on the ship. Afraid wasn't the right word. Wary, they were wary of everyone, not just him. Slowly they opened up to everyone, even him, and they didn't even question the way he looked and just accepted him as he was.

"Yeah. One of them is waiting for us," he answered with a fond smile. Luffy cheered and ran off again, this time pointing at the various fishes. They made it to their destination without trouble.

-*/-*/-*/-*/-*/

A/N: I wasn't sure, but can Observation Haki let you know who's who? I couldn't find that information. Oh wells.

How's this chapter? Shanks and Devil Fruit after Fishman Island.