Chapter 11

Being optimistic really has
nothing to do with happiness,
it's just taking whatever
life chucks at you and not
letting it break you down.

- unknown

With Whitebeard's new rule of having a commander with them at all times on New World's islands, the boys were usually accompanied by Marco. There were times when their Pops were too busy to go out with them, so the First Division Commander would find someone available to take them.

-*/

The first time this happened, it was Kingdew who went with the kids. One thing lead to another, and all four of them came back muddied with scrapes and bruises.

Sabo had somehow slipped into a lake. He grabbed Ace's shirt on his way down to save himself, only for the both of them to fall in. Kingdew dove in to save the two, but that left Luffy to wait on the sideline for them to come back. Of course it couldn't be that simple. A deer of all things came charging at the poor boy, causing him to run from the deadly antlers. That was what greeted Kingdew, Ace, and Sabo when they surfaced. Then they had to chase after Luffy, who was later found riding the rampaging deer, having the time of his life. Until he was bucked off and into the lake.

-*/

Then there was Rakuyo. He turned his head to look at a weapons shop window for just a second. He swore he only took a glance when Luffy disappeared. Apparently, the boy tripped and fell into a hole that was in the freaking middle of nowhere! Who the hell puts a hole that big where people walk? And how did no one fall into it yet? And of course. Ace and Sabo had to follow their little brother by somehow getting sucked into the hole too.

-*/

Haruta was slightly luckier. He was the only one of the group the come back beaten and battered that time. That was only because Luffy had dragged him, literally dragged him, into a store that had a hat he insisted Ace needs.

How did he, a grown man, get dragged by a kid that was barely half his size? Easy. The grown man first had to trip over one of the other brothers in order to fall to the ground, where it's easier for the munchkin to grab him.

Ace was very happy with the hat that was a tad too big for his head. The crew members mentioned this to him, as Haruta was being ignored in the background, and the boy scowled and claimed he'd grow into it soon.

-*/

The luckiest had to be Thatch. A drunk stumbled into Luffy, causing the boy to smashed his ice cream onto the man's shirt. The drunkard spewed profanities and threatened to kill the boy until he realized Thatch was reaching for his sword. Recognizing who was chaperoning the kid, the drunk then apologized and begged for forgiveness before running off.

That was the first time anyone came back unscathed with the boys, besides Marco. Though, Ace and Sabo were grumbling about idiots, drunks, and Luffy having too much ice cream.

-*/

The worst was when Luffy got kidnapped by a small pirate crew, who saw the large Whitebeard mark on the kid's T-shirt. They had hoped to get the kid to tell them what Whitebeard's weakness was to use against him.

Vista was so confused as to what had happened. One minute the kid was walking behind him, and the next, he was gone. There wasn't even a peep or a sound of struggle or anything. Vista was so sure that with the kid so close to him, Ace, and Sabo, one of them would know if he drifted off on his own or something. He and other two brothers searched every place they could. Giving up a couple hours later, they went back to the ship to get help.

It wasn't until almost dark that Marco, with Ace and Sabo, found the missing kid. The shack the pirates were holding up in was burnt to the ground with the enemies still in it. The sight of Luffy all bloodied, bruised, and unconscious had Vista wallowing in guilt.

Ace and Sabo had been called by Whitebeard with Marco when Luffy finally woke up. The first person he saw was Vista, who had been sitting there the whole time. The first thing the kid says to him was to apologize!

"What are you apologizing for?" Vista nearly cried. "I'm the one that should be saying sorry. I'm sorry for letting those guys take you and put you through all that. It's all my fault! I should have kept better watch on you!"

"But I wasn't fast enough to get away," Luffy teared. "He was really fast, and he made me sleep when I wasn't even tired. And Vista is sad."

Ace and Sabo came crashing in right after that, with Marco pulling them back before they could hurt Luffy anymore with their intent of a bone crushing hug. But after seeing Luffy bawling his eyes out at the sight of his brothers and claims of having thought of never seeing them again, Marco let them go with the risk of angering Kobato.

Everyone was proud of her after she drew up all her courage to fix up the child after nearly fainting from seeing him. She was determined to get over her fears for the boys. This is a pirate ship. If she's not able to pull through, who would bandage them up, she thought to herself. Sure, Izo could easily taken care of them, but adults are different than children. Luckily, Luffy had eaten the Gomu Gomu no Mi, causing his body to be rubber. That had saved his life. There were no broken bones to be fixed, no lasting scars, just a lot of small cuts that were easily bandaged up.

"It was scary! Ace and Sabo wasn't there when I woke up. There were only people I didn't know there!" Luffy wailed. "I don't like it. I don't like when I don't see Ace and Sabo. You weren't there with me, and it was scary!"

That was when it really hits home for Marco that Luffy doesn't remember ever being away from Ace and Sabo. They have always been in his life, never separated. They are all he's known from his very first memory until now. It doesn't matter that the boy now has so many others he could play with and is comfortable with. Ace and Sabo were here with him, and to Luffy, that was all he needs.

-*/

And now, after all fourteen commanders had babysat the boys at least once or twice during island visits, they were all congregated in the meeting room, while Marco got the kids ready for another island. They've been in there for the past ten minutes, making plans.

"I say we follow them,"Haruta suggested.

"That's not going to work," Thatch shook his head. "Marco would know."

"And Luffy," Izo added.

"Well, I don't hear any other ideas," Haruta grumbled with his arms crossed.

There was a moment of silence as they listened to the sounds of small feet running about on deck and Luffy's cheering. There was a collective sigh in the room as they realized they were running out of time if they wanted answers today.

"Fine. We follow them," Kingdew grunted. "We'll deal with getting caught when it happens."

Only Vista, Thatch, Haruta, Kingdew, and Izo had free time. Everyone else had things to do for their division before they set sail again.

"I can't believe we're acutally stalking Marco," Kingdew moaned as they stood in an alley in an attempt to hide themselves. It wasn't easy as they were a group of eye-catching men.

"I can't believe I'm going along with this," Izo huffed.

"I just want to know what Marco does with the kids," Vista rubbed the back of his head. "I don't want a repeat of last time I took them out. We need to know how Marco keeps the kids out of trouble."

"Did anyone think of asking?" Izo asked.

"Blenheim did," Haruta said. "Marco told him that he always takes the kids to do some training to tire them out before taking them sight-seeing. I heard Jiru tried that, and they all came back covered in dirt, twigs, and leaves. Luffy looked happy though."

Thatch took a quick look around the corner to see if the group of four was at a safe distance for them to continue following. The smile that appeared on his face, caused the rest of the commanders to look. They all smiled at the sight of Luffy, who was being carried under one of Marco's arm, was moving his arms and legs in an attempt to do the frog crawl in the air. Ace and Sabo were walking in front of Marco, talking to each other.

They followed, keeping their distance, and watched as Marco would stop his group in front of a few bars and walked on instead of going in. The commanders looked at each other in confusion when Marco and the boys finally went in a bar. It was just a bar. It was by far the rowdiest one in town. They could hear the merry-making from their hiding place, an alley five buildings away.

They were even more confused when Marco buttoned up his shirt, covering his tattoo. As soon as Marco and the boys went in, the group of commanders made their way to the bar's window to peek through.

/*-

Ace and Sabo ran through the crowd of gruff looking men and straight to the counter, where they usually sat when they go out with Marco. Seeing his brothers run, Luffy stretched his arms towards the bar, causing everyone there to go silent and stare. Marco, not wanting to be flung across the room with the boy, let go of Luffy.

"I win!" Luffy cheered with his arms up, just as Ace and Sabo scrabbled up the stools on either side of him.

"And you didn't hit anything this time. Good job," Sabo ruffled the boy's hair.

Marco walked up to them and picked Luffy up and let the boy sit on his lap. "Beer for me, whatever juice you have for these two, and milk for this one-yoi," he ordered, startling the bartender from his stupor.

"We don't get food?" Luffy turned his head at an odd angle and tilted it up to see Marco's face.

"Later-yoi."

"Well, what do we have here?" a big hairy man approached them and slammed his hand down next to Ace. "Don't you know you don't bring kids into a bar full of bandits?" Everyone laughed.

The bartender returned with their drinks and set them down before quickly backing away, wanting to stay out of any unwanted trouble and pain.

Marco smirked at the man, "I can bring the kids anywhere I want-yoi. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with them."

The bandit laughed. "You want me to fight with your kids? You've got to be kidding. Or maybe you're just a wuss who can't handle a fight. Hey, guys. This girly man wants us to fight his kids. I wonder how much that little one with the Devil's Fruit would go for?"

The bar erupted in laughter. The laughter stopped suddenly when the hairy man was sent crashing into an unoccupied chair.

"Pops isn't a wuss, and you can't have Luffy!" Ace declared with his fist still in front of him. He then turned to look at Marco with a glare. "He started it, and he smells."

Marco merely shrugged and turned around, with Luffy still on his lap, to face the rest of the bandits. Ace and Sabo got off their stools to stand in front of them with their fist raised. "Same rules as usual: 1,000 beli for each furniture you burn to me, cost of damages to the owner, and if you burn the building down, Luffy sleeps with me for a month."

There was barely enough time for the two boys to nod in agreement before the bandits surged towards them, and all hell broke loose.

/*-

"What the hell is Marco thinking?!" Thatch nearly screeched.

"Sounds like he's teaching them to control their fire power," Izo mused, "and maybe extorting them."

"At least he's watching them?" Haruta tried to defend their brother as he watched Luffy, still sitting on Marco's lap, send a punch towards a man that was about to swing his sword at them. Marco did nothing to help, not even to dodge.

"Should we help?" Vista asked worriedly.

Izo shook his head and pointed at Marco, who was looking right at them, clearly not wanting them to interrupt. "I don't think Marco will be happy about that if we did. We'll jump in if it looks like we're needed, which I doubt will happen with Marco there."

"Is Luffy doing what I think he's doing?" Kingdew asked in bewilderment.

They all looked back in to see the boy stretching his arms towards various tables, taking the plates of food and putting them on the countertop.

"Well, at least Marco's looking over them and tossing the ones that don't look good away," Thatch grumbled. "What a waste of food."

Kindew patted his brother's back soothingly. "It's Marco. The food is probably bad."

"Have you noticed that Luffy's aim is better?" Haruta pointed out. "He hasn't missed a single plate of food he was aiming for, and he punched away all the guys that are attacking them. Look!"

They all paid attention to Luffy stretching his arm back to throw a punch at a guy that nearly took off Sabo's head. Not that it'd work, unless the man knew haki, which it didn't seem like it. The punch itself didn't do much but to distract the man long enough for Sabo to turn around to launch a firey kick, knocking the man into two tables.

"Looks like the kid still can't handle his recoil," Izo said when Marco had to stop Luffy's arm from knocking them both off their stool. "When was the last time anyone trained with the brats, anyway?"

"I think Marco's been training Luffy, along with Ace and Sabo. The two older brats' been sparing with whoever has spare time," Vista had his eyes closed in thought.

"I'm pretty sure Marco's supervising those too. You know, so they don't get out of hand and burn someone or the ship," Thatch said.

They gave a low whistle when they saw Ace and Sabo practically fused together to attack the men behind each other. It was like they switched places. The two kids looked at each other in surprise before grinning.

"Must be a new move. Those three sure know how to handle their fruit pretty well for only having them for two years," said Kingdew.

Seeing as Ace just take down the last bandit and Luffy waving at them, the commanders made their way in.

"How many chairs did they break-yoi?" They heard Marco ask Luffy.

"One, two, three," Luffy pointed to each chair as he slowly counted. "Um, all of them!"

"Actually..." the bar owner started timidly before he was cut off by Marco.

"How many chairs did you have total-yoi?"

"There were 25 all together, but there are a few that are still usable."

"Okay. If one chair is 200 beli, how much would 25 chairs cost-yoi?"

"Two hundred beli?! My chairs aren't worth that much!"

"Shush! Luffy's thinking!" Both boys told the bartender.

They all watched as Luffy bend over a sheet of paper with a pen in his hand, while still sitting on Marco's lap. Most of the commander's eyebrows rose in confusion as the boy continue to solve the math problem in his barely legible handwriting.

"4,532 beli," he answered proudly.

"How did he get that answer?" Thatch whispered to Vista, who just shrugged, just as baffled as his other brothers.

Marco, on the other hand, continued on without batting an eye. "And how many tables are broken-yoi?"

"Um, five," Luffy said after looking around.

"If one table is 300 beli, how much would five tables cost-yoi?"

Ace and Sabo gave another glare to the bartender before the man could making another protest.

"1,968 beli." There was a moment of pause in the commander's head as they process the numbers.

"So how much do they owe the owner-yoi?"

"Uh, 7,500 beli."

"Okay." Marco waved his hand in front of the confused bartender to get his attention. "The kids owe you 7,500 beli-yoi. Will that cover everything?"

"Cover everything? That's too much! I can't take that much from children!" the owner protested.

"Think of the extras as a 'thank you fee' for letting us use your place for training-yoi. Besides, they're not paying out of their own pocket," Marco gave the man an easy smile as he put Luffy down. "And you kids owe me 5,000 beli for the five chairs you burned-yoi."

With that, the kids went off to clean the downed bandits of their money.

"Marco, you do you know that that brat's math is wrong, right?" Kingdew pointed out.

Marco merely grinned at them. "Motivation for the other two brats to teach him better-yoi."

Izo crossed his arms and looked at his brother in disapproval. "I can't believe you, of all people, would bring those kids into a bar full of bandits."

"Hands on training-yoi," Marco waved off his brother's concern. "Besides, these kids learn faster with real life situation, than just sparing, where they know they're safe-yoi."

"Is this how you keep them out of trouble?" Thatch asked with wide eyes.

Marco nodded. "Bring them to trouble, so you know to what to expect and hold on to Luffy, or he'll just somehow find trouble you won't be ready for. I had him practice swimming to keep him moving because he wouldn't stay still."

-*/-*/-*/

After getting used to the idea that Whitebeard tends to pick up new family members, Ace and Sabo came up with the idea of pranking new members. Their favorite by far is when the whole ship pretends they weren't there and lets them 'haunt' the ship.

/*-

A few hours after being picked up by the Whitebeard Pirates from being stranded at sea, Jacob rubbed his eyes. He could have sworn he saw a kid a few feet away from him just a second ago. He looked again, and the kid was gone. Just to make sure, he asked the older members he was assigned to work with.

"A kid?" they laughed. "This is a pirate ship. Why would we have kids?"

The man just shrugged it off, thinking maybe he was just tired after drifting around without food for so long.

Then it happened again. This time he saw a blond kid. This one was a little older. He blinked, and the kid was gone. Not wanting to be laughed at again, he didn't mention it. That is, until it happened a third time during dinner in the galley.

"I swear it!" He said to his new family. "There are kids on this ship. At least three of them. One little one, two older ones. I think we should check for stowaways."

A heavy hand landed on the man's shoulder. "With this many people, there's no way we would miss a stowaway or three. Maybe you're seeing ghosts," Thatch said in a low creepy voice, causing everyone to laugh. A shiver crawled up the man's spine as he heard children's laughter along with everyone else's.

Jacob was beginning to think he was going crazy by the next day when he saw all three of them together in the galley, actually eating breakfast at the tables with the commanders. None of the commanders seem to notice them, not even when the smallest one stole food off their plates. Do ghosts need to eat?

When he was on deck after breakfast, the three kids were already there. He could have sworn he left before them, but there they were, running around, chasing each other and everyone not seeing them. Then, all of the sudden, the youngest slipped in between the rails to fall overboard.

Two crew members at the rail where it happened both jumped in after the kid, and Commander Vista, who just happened to standing there, tossed over the rope ladder for them to climb back up. As all this was happening, just about everyone else on the deck rushed towards the cabin.

The man turned to his commander, Blamenco, "So, I'm not going crazy? Those kids are really there?"

Blamenco smacked his hand on the back of the man's back and laughed. "Nah. The kids like to pull pranks on new members." He lead the man towards the kids, just as the smallest made it back up with the other crew members. "These are Ace, Sabo, and Luffy, all hammers. So if you see one go over, make sure you jump in after them. Otherwise...well, you don't want to know what Marco would do to you." Blamenco laughed once more.

"I'd tie you and hang you over the side of the ship and leave you there for a few days-yoi," Marco said as he came up to the group with a large towel in hand.

Then there was a thundering of footsteps as the rest of the crew who were on deck earlier rushed back with various clothing pieces in hand, all excitedly waving them around for the sopping wet child.

"They're Marco's," his commander whispered to him then continued in a louder voice, "This happens often. You'll never see a boring day with these kids around."

"I'll say," Izo said as he came up to them. "Luffy's a walking heart attack waiting to happen." He grabbed the nearest article of clothing to hand to Marco, once Luffy's dried.

"That's a boy, right?"

"Yes," Blamenco answered with a grin.

"Okay." He's not even going to bother. He's stuck on this ship. Don't get him wrong, he likes it there, but there are kids on a pirate ship. Kids that everyone seemed to be fussing over. Better not question anything more, unless he says something stupid enough to be tossed over.

Yes. Whitebeard Pirates enjoy seeing new crew member's reaction to meeting the children.

-*/-*/-*/

Just a month before the boys' 11th and 14th birthday, there was an attack on Moby Dick. It just happens that more than half of the crew were on gone on various different missions at the time. Not that that was a problem, but the pirate crew that was attacking had them out numbered in fighters, so the boys decided to help out in fighting the enemies.

Ace, Sabo, and Luffy had no problem with their assigned duty of defending the nurses and doctors who were out and about the deck, helping the injured into the infirmary for treatment. They were on separate parts of the ship, taking down anyone who dared to get in their way of retrieving their injured family members. Not everyone in the 16th division knows how to fight, but they were still fine, since their ship had plenty of other fighters to protect them. Whitebeard didn't care if they could fight or not. All that mattered to him was that they are his children, and he'd keep them safe.

Luffy just punched an enemy out of the way for one of the doctors to take a look at someone from the third division who had been shot in the shoulder, when his haki told him that someone was aiming for them. He pushed the doctor out of the way.

"LUFFY!" the doctor yelled as he watched the boy fall face first onto the deck after the shot was fired.

Upon hearing that one name, most of the Whitebeard Pirates had stopped fighting to turn their heads towards the call. Even Whitebeard stood up from his seat, where he had been observing the fight.

As soon as Ace and Sabo saw the doctor kneeling over Luffy's prone body, they called out an attack, stopping anyone near them from moving. "Hotarubi!" Their anger acted as fuel as they were able to call out more fireflies than they had been able to during training. They were able to push half of the enemy crew towards the rails of the ship, with Marco helping with the other half.

The rest of the Whitebeards stayed out of their way, not wanting to mess with an angry Marco. Looks like they shouldn't mess with an angry Ace or Sabo either. They, Whitebeard included, watched as the enemies backed away in fear from the boys' yellow-green fireflies and Marco's fiery form.

"Who hurt Luffy?" both Ace and Sabo demanded.

There was a moment of silence as no one answered the boys before Marco sent shivers down their spines. "Which one of you bastards shot my son-yoi?" his voice low and dangerous.

"He's okay!" the doctor cries out in relief before Marco could get an answer.

Marco and the boys quickly forgot the enemies as they rushed to Luffy's side.

"I believe his rubbery body saved him," the doctor told them, the battle long forgotten by both sides. "There's only a bruise right here. The bullet must have bounced off him and pushed him down."

"Luffy?" Ace and Sabo tried to nudge their brother awake. Marco watched in satisfaction as the small chest moved up and down.

"Ace? Sabo?" Luffy slurred as he slowly opened his eyes.

"Don't do that again!" His brothers yelled at him. "You scared us!" And they engulfed him in a hug.

Luffy teared up, feeling the fear and relief from them. "I'm sorry," his voice muffled, returning the hug. "I didn't have time to do anything, and I didn't know what to do."

There were sounds of movement behind them before they heard a rumbling sound and felt the ship shake. Then the next thing they knew, parts of the railing and the enemy pirates were thrown out to sea.

"Seems some of them had seconds thoughts about living," Whitebeard commented as he took his seat again.

"Did you do that, Grandpops?" Luffy gave the captain a look of wonderment. "That's so cool!"

Whitebeard looked at the boy in amusement. "Yes, I did. I used my Devil Fruit. I can show you more tomorrow. Right now, I think you and your brothers need to sleep. You boys look tired. Leave the cleaning up for everyone else."

"Come on boys," Marco scooped Luffy up in his arms, "you're sleeping with me tonight-yoi."

After the four of them disappeared into the cabins, the tension dissipated. "I don't think I've ever seen Commander Marco so angry before," someone whispered, but was still loud enough for others to hear.

"You're telling me," Thatch said, "and I've known him since forever." Then he grinned. "I wonder if he realizes that he finally accepted those brats as his sons?"

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

A/N: A little of their life before skipping a few years. This chapter skipped around. The boys are anywhere from 8-11 and 11-14 years of age.

Sorry for the late update. I won't be able to put up new chapters as often as I have been, but I will try my best to put them up when I can. I will admit that I didn't go through this chapter as well as I wanted. I just wanted to post it soon so you guys didn't have to wait any longer. I'm sorry. (_ _)