"What am I like?" Marco asks out of the blue and Fire Fist is jolts out of his thoughts. He looks around the room, thinking Marco was talking to someone else (even after being here for five days, Marco doesn't initiate contact with him very often. Thatch doesn't either). "Yes, Fire Fist, I'm talking to you."
"To me?" Fire Fist asks, just to make sure.
"Yes, you." Marco sighs and whacks his arm. Fire Fist laughs at the familiarity of the action.
"Hmm, let's see," Fire Fist thinks about it for a second, remembering his Marco. He blocks out the memories from the war and instead focuses on all the good memories. "My Marco was the one who carried my unconscious ass back to the ship after Oyaji beat the shit outta me."
"Why would he do that?"
Fire Fist rubs the back of his head and gives a strained laugh, "I tried to kill him. Multiple times. Anyways—" he says before Marco has time to interrupt with more questions, "—My Marco was a hardass, but is one of the greatest pirates to sail the seas. He wants to be free more than anyone and Oyaji provided him that opportunity. He's been Oyaji's right hand man since day one. Aaaaand, he ends his sentences with yoi."
"Why?"
"Hell if I know," Fire Fist says with a grin. "He was always the crew's mother hen, both figuratively and literally."
"What?"
"He turns into a giant blue chicken that's on fire," Fire Fist says, with as straight of a face as possible. Seeing the incredulous look on Marco's face, Fire Fist bursts into laughter. "Just kidding! God, you should've seen your face."
"I never know with how strange your world is," Marco says in return.
"He does turn into a Phoenix," Ace tells him. "That's his Devil Fruit power. He's strong too, I was never able to beat him. He and Thatch were the first to really make me feel at home with the crew. He's my best friend."
"You miss him then?" Marco asks and Fire Fist sighs because yes he missed his crew. Seeing Thatch and Marco's faces (same face, different person) reminds him of that.
He misses his family.
"I miss all of them," Fire Fist says instead.
He's determined to see them again.
"Luffy!" Ace calls as he walks around the house. Luffy looks up from his spot at the table, surrounded by several different papers and a calculator. "Are you doing homework?"
"Yeah!" Luffy calls back before returning to his stack of papers and furiously writing.
Fire Fist, who'd been lounging on the barstool and chatting with Straw Hat, hops off to peer over Luffy's shoulder, "This seems…vile."
Straw Hat follows and looks over Luffy's other shoulder, "This looks boring!"
"It is!" Luffy agrees, pouting, but doesn't take his eyes off of his work. "I don't want to do it."
"Then don't do it," Straw Hat says like it's that simple.
"He needs to," Marco interrupts. "You're a terrible role model."
"Pirate, remember?" Fire Fist grins.
"I gotta do my homework if I want to keep up my GPA and get into a good college," Luffy says and then flops dramatically on the papers, sending a few fluttering to the floor.
"But why do that? It sounds terrible."
"Because," Ace interrupts, sliding in the seat next to Luffy. Fire Fist glances once at the stack of papers and shakes his head. "Not everyone can drop everything and sail the ocean on a pirate ship with all their friends and visit magical islands full of adventure."
"At least pirates don't have homework."
"It's not that bad," Luffy says. "Sometimes it's fun, but Mr. Kuzan likes to assign lots of packets that are always hard."
"Kuzan…" Fire Fist looks like he's thinking before whirls around, eyes wide. "You mean Aokiji? Are you kidding?"
"He's my math teacher," Luffy says bluntly.
"Aokiji… is your math teacher," Fire Fist says, like he doesn't believe it.
"Yep," Luffy pops the 'p' and rolls his pencil between his fingers. "He's pretty chill most of the time."
Straw Hat suddenly bursts into laughter and Fire Fist starts chokes on air. Within seconds, both are rolling on the floor, tears in their eyes. Ace exchanges glances with Luffy, Marco, and Thatch, unsure how to react. Minutes go by and their pearls of laughter fade into chortles and giggles.
"Why are you laughing?" Thatch asks once they've calmed down. Straw Hat snorts like he's trying to keep another laugh in.
"Aokiji ate an ice Devil Fruit in our world," Fire Fist explains as he picks himself up off the floor.
"He froze Robin and I solid once," Straw Hat says and doesn't elaborate.
Fire Fist stares at his brother for a good few seconds before shaking his head, "I feel like it would be better for my health if I don't hear that story. Anyways, he's literally made out of ice. Logia fruit, hard to fight if you don't know what you're doing. What's this?"
Fire Fist picks up a piece of paper from the pile and scans the words on the page. Straw Hat peers at it from over his shoulder for a moment before deciding that whatever in on the paper is not enough to hold his attention goes to sit on one of the seats surrounding the table.
"An English assignment," Luffy tells him and grins.
"I don't understand what it says," Fire Fist says and places the piece of paper down on the table.
Thatch picks up the piece of paper and gives it a once over before giving Fire Fist a weird look, "Can you even read?"
Fire Fist laughs but nods, "I mean, yeah, you have to read if want to know what the government says about you and, well, I had paperwork that I had to do as a division commander. I'm not the best at it. L—Straw Hat can only read a bit. Makino and Sabo couldn't get him to focus long enough to explain full lessons."
"My nakama read the papers for me," Straw Hat says when everyone looks at him.
"Weird," Ace says.
"Soooo," Thatch slides next to Fire Fist. Fire Fist stops for a second, tensing because Thatch was dead, but then remembers just where he is a sighs. Different world, different Thatch. One that Teach hadn't murdered in cold blood.
Fire Fist plans to keep it that way.
"I really... died in your world?" Thatch asks, unsure. Fire Fist sees a flash of Thatch's body, cold and covered in blood, face first on the deck. Remembers the medics rushing around, remembers the tears of his friends. Remembers when Thatch was declared dead and Teach a traitor.
It was the start of Fire Fist's personal hell.
"Murdered," Fire Fist says and takes a deep breath. "You were murdered."
"By who?"
Something painful curls in Fire Fist's gut, "Blackbeard. Teach."
"You guys seem to have a lot of problems with this guy," Thatch says and Fire Fist can't look him in the eye. Too many what if scenarios play in his head whenever he does. He looks at this Thatch but sees his Thatch, his friend. He sees the one that used to run around the Mody Dick causing chaos in all of his wake. The one that would wake up hours before everyone else just to make sure the entire ship was fed. The one that laughed at corny jokes and made friends with everyone he could. The one that died with his blood staining the very ship he called home.
"We didn't always, he used to be my friend. Our friend," Fire Fist doesn't like to think of the traitor like that. He wishes he'd known what that man was capable of. Teach was a part of his division. Teach is his responsibility.
Fire Fist grips the sides of his arms so hard they bleed, "You found a Devil Fruit and Blackbeard wanted it. He stabbed you in the back during the middle of the night while he was on watch. I couldn't do anything."
Thatch looks at him for a long time before sighing, "You think my death was your fault."
"Not just your death," Fire Fist says. All of his family dying for him at Marineford came to mind. Oars Jr., Oyaji. "Teach was a part of my division, and I wasn't strong enough to defeat him."
"You don't have to be strong all the time, y'know." Thatch's look isn't quite pity. He gives Fire Fist a sad smile that Fire Fist doesn't return.
"In my world," Fire Fist laughs but there's no humor in his tone. "If you're not strong, you die."
Thatch sighs, "People in your world… they don't live very long, do they?"
"No," Fire Fist agrees, remembering strong brothers and an even stronger father. "Not as long as they should."
short chapter w/ my inconsistent update schedule lmao (i basically update when i remember this story exists or asexualzoro reminds me rip)
rest in pieces canon thatch, u only had about two minutes of screen time but everyone loves u anyways