There's a saying... if you're hungry, eat.

-Monkey D. Luffy

ONE PIECE: ROMANCE DAWN 1

FALCON IN THE SKY

I-I-I-III

.:New Beginnings:.

"Men!" Thatch cried, raising Falco's hand. "This is your new Vice Commander of the Fourth Division, Falco!"

The Whitebeard Pirates who were all eating dinner on the Moby Dick immediately spat their foods out in surprise. Marco smacked Thatch on the back of his head rudely.

"Idiot. You don't just go announcing these kinds of things in the middle of dinner!" The First Division's commander spat at the Fourth.

"Well if not, when?" Was his only reply. Thatch grinned and shrugged. "We're always full of surprises, no?" Which earned another sigh and a smack on the forehead for Marco.

As expected, a massive flood of questions were thrown at the pair. Marco and Ace wearily listened behind them.

"Who IS she?"

"Where'd that come from?!"

"I've been in the crew for ten years! How come I'm not Vice Commander, then?"

"She's a girl! And she looks weak, as if I could crush her!"

Falco stiffened at the last comment. Smiling slightly, she moved to where the pirate who rudely said the words and grinned. The pirate, with a confused face, looked at her and scoffed.

BAM!

Without even unsheathing her sword, the new Vice Commander swung the blade with a quick motion and sent the other pirate fighting.

"Say that again and you'll be sleeping with the fishies next," she growled, rolling her eyes.

Marco, Ace, and Thatch all looked at her with a blank expression. Scary.

Falco turned around and smiled at the three boys before setting her eyes on the beer and food put out in front of her. She grinned widely before starting to stuff herself. Again, the three boys stared at her with a blank expression before sweatdropping.

"She's been here for like what, three hours?" Ace whispered to Marco.

"Shut up, she's gonna hear you and kill you!"

"God, she's already gotten into a fight with a crew member and now she's stuffing herself as if the Moby Dick was always here home."

"Marco," Thatch suddenly interrupted. "Come talk to me. Ace, keep Falco company."

"God, why do I always have to?" Ace asked, but went to the new Vice Commander anyways.

The two commanders watched the young man go as Marco spoke first. "Well?"

Thatch chuckled softly. "Marco, don't act stupid in front of me. Your facade is so fake and unreal I can cry."

Marco blushed. "Shut up, it's not like you can do better. But honestly, I'm just as surprised as you are. Never thought she'd be on Root Island of all the places, but I guess that's the reason why she's even there in the first place..."

"Which leads us to our main questions," Thatch continued. "One, what was she doing on Root Island for thirteen years? Two, what is she hiding from? And three, she's kept herself concealed for more than half her lifetime but Marines have now finally spotted her. Is it okay we take her in? Wouldn't that technically make us more vulnerable since the damned Marines would be tracking us plus Falco, since they can spot her better?"

Thatch sighed deeply. To be completely honest, he didn't know the answer to any of these questions, but Falco was Falco and he'd do anything to protect her. After all, Maria had always supported him.

With a brief moment of silence, Marco spoke first. "Whatever she did on Root Island for thirteen years will soon be found out sooner or later, it's bound to be something big, right? Two, it's obvious she's hiding from the Marines and you know exactly why. Three, we're the Whitebeard Pirates, mate. The most wanted crew in the world. Having Falco as one of our Vice Commanders won't make that much of a difference, right?"

"And... I don't get it," Thatch sighed, exasperated. "Why hide from the Marines though? Sure there's Garp and Jonathan and Mihawk and the Admirals and all that other crap but still, why?Falco's father is an ally of the Marines. Surely they'd keep her safe unless they don't mind Mihawk chopping up the entire Marine base."

Marco rubbed his chin for a moment. "I'm actually wondering of Mihawk even knows or cares that Falco is alive."

"Well that's perfect."

Marco rolled his eyes and glanced at Falco. She seemed to be having an eating contest with Ace.

Must've been hungry or s'mthin'.

"Hey Falco," Marco said, sitting behind her. Munching loudly with a mouth full of food, she said: "What's up?"

Trying to be polite and not barf at the mess she and Ace were making, the commander asked: "We'd like to know a little bit about you. Your age, weapon, devil fruit if you have any, likes, dislikes, strange habits..."

Falco just smiled at him before chugging some rum. "Well, I'm 19 for one thing. I use swords, mainly nitoryu but I'm comfortable with anything, really. I do have a Devil Fruit with an unknown identity... I don't know when I consumed it though. It's called the Tori Tori no Mi, hybrid."

"Hybrid?" Marco asked suspiciously.

"That's what I'd like to call it, honestly, I don't exactly know what it is though."

Thatch slowly nodded, as if thinking about something. After his train of thoughts he said: "Go on."

"I really like the sea and traveling, battling with my sword, and I can also bartend. Red wine is my favourite alcoholic beverage. I hate Mihawk. Other than him though, I'm cool with everyone. I cannot sleep without a pillow and I like baggy clothing!"

Ace leaned back and silently chuckled. She seemed like the average female pirate, minus the whole 'daughter-of-Mihawk' and 'hybrid Devil-Fruit' thing. Suddenly, the man realized the plate full of meat now had its contents empty and heard a satisfied burp in front of him.

"That was good stuff," Falco said, cleaning her teeth with a toothpick (where on earth did that come from?) much to Ace's annoyance.

"MY FOOOOOOD!" He wailed.

ONE PIECE: ROMANCE DAWN 1

FALCON IN THE SKY

I-I-I-III

.:New Beginnings:.

Two A.M. Two Knocks. Ace was annoyed.

What the hell? He grumbled to himself, walking over to the door. Though he did sleep frequently during the day (but never noticing...), Ace felt like he was supposed to be tired and angry at this time of day. Tomorrow was going to be an extremely important day for the first four divisions, and he did NOT want to fall asleep in the middle of the ceremony.

He opened the door to yell at the person who knocked, but to his surprise, it was Falco.

"Falco? What are you doing? What's wrong?" He asked, looking at her bloodshot eyes.

"Eheeee~" She went, smiling in a weird way. She stumbled to his bed before falling on top of it to fall asleep. Ace sighed. Some probably drugged her drinks as a joke. Always happened to the new crewmates they'd recruit. Though he wasn't sure if she was going to let it go the next morning. After managing a small smile, Ace went to observe Falco sleeping. He rolled her to her back so the girl could be more comfortable, and took her white-beige cowboy hat off.

Suddenly, Ace was engulfed by darkness.

Ah, shi-

Things are moving really slowly right now, aren't they? I'm really sorry guys T^T I promise it'll be interesting later on so stay tuned!

Special Thanks To:
xXxWolvesInTheNightxXx
10th Squad 3rd Seat
the-quiet-one
PortgasDLisanna
Mugiwara Otome

REVIEWREVIEWREVIEW! I'd love to hear from you guys :D

~moonlitnights14