DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE

Oh, would you look at that! I updated two stories in one day?! Christmas Miracle?!

Chapter Two

I was frozen in place. My feet literally could not move. It wasn't because I was scared of him or anything. He was just very large; quite possibly the largest man that I had ever seen in my life. So large that he didn't fit inside the Tavern and instead, the partying patrons and pirates all moved out back to party around him instead. It was amazing, really, that even as he sat hunched over a bottle of alcohol, he was still much taller than the people standing around him.

Stafford pulled me along, all but dragging my feet along the ground for a few feet before realizing that I was frozen. "There's no need to be so scared." I'm not scared. "Pops is a nice guy. He ain't gonna hurt ya."

"Pops…?" I looked between Stafford and the large pirate captain and frowned. Were they really father and son?

I didn't get to ask as we came to a stop before the giant man and Stafford was bringing his attention to us by speaking loudly over the music. "Yo Pops, I got someone you might wanna meet!" I noticed that he had gotten his pirate accent back, but didn't comment on it. The pirate captain's eyes were on me now as Stafford continued to speak, and I felt uncomfortable. Like his stare held a physical weight that pressed on my shoulders. "This is Mara. Panther D. Mara"

Now he seemed interested. His eyebrow rose and he looked me up and down for a moment, studying me so hard that the weight pressed down even harder. "Good to meet ya, brat." I nodded in acknowledgement. "What's the point of this, Staffy-boy?"

"Oh yeah!" Stafford slapped his forehead and turned to me, kneeling on the ground and placing his hands on my shoulders. "Miss Josie said she wanted to see you! She should be inside with a few of the guys, so go on in there and I'll talk to Pops, okay?"

I nodded and went inside. Not because I believed him, because I didn't. Miss Josie knew that I was going home, and she wouldn't have sent a pirate to come get me if she needed to see me. She wouldn't have sent anyone. She would have waited until tomorrow night to tell me. Stafford also hadn't said anything this whole time about her needing to see me. Not until we were in front of this captain and he needed to answer his question. Obviously they needed to have an adult conversation without me there, a lot like mom and dad used to do. He could have just said so, but it was shrugged off as I pushed the front door open and hopped up on one of the stools at the counter.

His lie was even more obvious when Miss Josie looked to me with wide eyes, looked to the clock, and looked back at me with clear confusion. "Didn't you go home?" I shrugged and rested my elbow on the counter, bringing my face to rest in my hand and looked around behind the bar. Miss Josie walked from the three she was talking to, the three pirates that walked in earlier before I left, and came to stand before me, placing her hand on my forehead. "You're not sick, are you?"

I pulled my head back and waved her hands away. "I'm fine."

"Well then why are you here? I said to come back tomorrow night, not tonight. I thought you were tired!"

Behind me, a hand clapped onto my shoulder and I looked back to see Loo barely able to stand as he held a mug in his hand and grinned like a dope. "Aw, c'mon Josie! Maybe she missed ol' Uncle Loo~" I shoved his hand off of my shoulder and he slumped to the floor, hitting his shoulder hard on the ground.

Josie laughed and moved around the bar to point at him. "Yeah, she sure missed you, idiot!" I turned back to the counter and propped my chin up once more in my hand, ignoring them until my name was spoken once again. Josie was right beside me, between where I sat and where the three pirates sat. She bent down to my level and looked me in my eyes. "You're not having those dreams again, are you?"

I can't remember much after that. I know that I reassured Josie that the dreams weren't bothering me in the slightest that night. Then I had to lie when she brought up if I was being bullied again, because that was all I needed was Josie running to those kid's houses and giving them all some good slaps for being rude. And then at some point, I had to have fallen asleep at the bar because the next thing I knew, I was waking up at the crack of dawn by falling down onto the floor from my resting place. It was a rather rude awakening, falling from three feet up straight onto my stomach, but I needed it.

When I woke, the bar was near empty. A few of the men and women who were partying fell asleep on the tables and the floor and stayed there. I gingerly stepped over every stray limb, leaving the Tavern and making my way back to the house. My thoughts went to visiting the cemetery, but those were quickly dispelled. I couldn't bring myself to do it. Not since the funeral.

As I passed the docks, I stopped, transfixed on the large vessel stationed there. It was massive. Quite possibly the largest ship I had ever seen in my life. No other pirate crew came in a ship that was nearly the same size as the island itself, and I couldn't stop looking. And there was a part of me that wanted a closer look. But would that be okay? The pirates seemed friendly enough, but would they really want some kid coming near their ship?

"Yo, what're you doing out here so early, kiddo?" I turned to my left and spotted the pirate Stafford from the night before. He stood beside the man wearing white, the aristocratic looking pirate, both of them holding crates over their shoulders. I said nothing, simply looked at them. Then I started away, making my way back home and away from the docks. "Wait! Hey - - dammit! Hey, wait, kiddo!"

Turning, I saw the cause of his cursing. Stafford had went to come after me, but dropped a crate on his foot, which was now swollen as he limped around, knocking into the white wearing man. This caused the latter to fall to the ground, Stafford falling on top of him, and they were then smashed further into the ground by the crates falling on them. The white wearing man began to smack at Stafford, calling him names and trying to shove the man off who was busy cradling his hurt foot.

I took in look at this scene, blushed on their behalf, and turned on my heel, intent on going back home for real this time. But when I turned, I slammed into a body and had to step back to look up at who had been behind me. It was the pineapple haired pirate.

"Oi, what are you two doing?" The pineapple head shouted at the two on the ground, sighing when he was completely ignored. I took this opportunity to sneak around him and start down the street, but his hand reached back and grabbed ahold of the strap of my dress. "I don't think so." My eyes widened and I struggled against his hold, but to no avail. The pineapple head lifted me easily by my strap, my feet dangling a few feet off the ground as he brought me eye-level with himself. "You caused that, you help fix it."

My jaw fell to the floor and I could not believe it. I was being blamed for them falling on one another? It was Stafford's fault! And I told that pineapple head just that, and he might have let me off the hook if I hadn't called him pineapple head out loud. He promptly corrected me, telling me his proper name was Marco and that I should use it, before I was set beside the other two pirates that were the cause of all of this and told to carry a crate.

"Aw, come on Marco, look how small she is!" Stafford stepped back and gestured dramatically at my dwarfed size compared to the men around me. This caused me to huff and slap his hands away, claiming to be able to do it myself.

So I grabbed a crate, lifting it in my arms with little difficulty and strating to the ship, following after Marco who had walked away as soon as Stafford began to argue with him. The pineapple head turned to look at me over his shoulder, but I barely registered that. I was too busy trying to carry the box that seemed to weigh a ton! What the hell did they keep in these things? Cannon balls?! I mean, that would make sense. The crates being filled with cannon balls. They were pirates, after all, and I'm sure they got into fights out at sea all the time.

Going up the gangplank was an adventure in itself. My legs shook with the strain and I felt my cheeks heat because Stafford and the white wearing pirate were behind me, silently bearing with the fact that I was taking forever to get up. Marco waited up at the top on the deck of the ship looking down at me with his hands on his hips and a frown. This was harder than I had thought. I didn't think the box would be this heavy!

Behind me, the white wearing man spoke up, sounding worried. "Should we really have her do this? I mean, look at the bandages. She's clearly hurt."

"I'm fine." I grit out, taking another step and wiping the sweat from my forehead on my shoulder. A few more steps and I would make it. I got excite with the end in sight and wound up nearly running up the rest of the way, falling to my knees at the top and leaning my upper body across the crate, breathing deeply. "I'm tired."

Crates slammed down around me, and a hand found it's way to my head. I peeked up through my hair and saw that it was Stafford, grinning down at me before he walked away. The white wearing man followed. That left me alone with Marco.

I lifted myself off the crate, dusting off my dress, and stared him right in his eyes. The pineapple head cocked his head to the side and frowned deeply for a moment before a smile replaced it. "I can see why Pops likes you." Now it was my turn to cock my head and frown. Marco squatted down in front of me on the other side of the crate and rested his chin in his hand. "He was right. People with the Will of D are always full of spunk."

"The Will of D?" I had never heard of such a thing. Was it because of my middle initial?

Marco nodded. "You never heard of it?" I shook my head. "Well, that's alright. A lot of people haven't, and no one really knows what it means. Well, Pops might, but he doesn't tell anyone."

"You all call him 'Pops', but he's your captain, isn't he?" I noticed that Stafford did it as well as Marco, and I found it hard to believe that they were all really related.

He only smiled again. "He's like a father to us all. We're all one family, not related by blood, but still family nonetheless." I nodded slowly, somewhat understanding what he was saying, though I had never had a family that wasn't blood related. "Family is very important to him."

"That's good." I nodded again, giving him a small smile and trying to not think too much about the past. "You should hold onto family as long as you can because one day, it'll all be gone and you'll miss it a whole lot." My voice cracked near the end and I cleared my throat. "Well, I gotta go home now. Sorry for causing trouble, Mister Marco."

I bowed, turned to go, and was grabbed again, though this time, it was his words that grabbed me instead of his hands. "Do you want to meet him?" I looked over my shoulder, confused. "Pops. Do you want to meet Pops?"

And I did want to meet him, because he seemed unreal, and I really wanted another look at the giant man. I hadn't had much time to gawk last night. Marco led me through the ship, which all looked the same - - wooden. I couldn't make out any outstanding sights except for the few women in pink dressed that wandered around, talking amongst one another and shooting me glances that weren't unfriendly, but merely curious.

We stopped at a door that was too large, and I knew right away that the captain was behind there, because who else needed a door that large to a room? Unless there was another person on board that was just as large at the man. Marco knocked three times and went in, gesturing me to follow.

Inside, the large man sat in a chair, drinking from a huge cup and reading a normal sized newspaper. The sight would have made me amused had it not been for the fact that he was hooked up to machines that were all too similar to the ones that had been hooked up to Margie not too long after the incident. There was something displaying his heartbeat, something displaying his blood pressure, and another IV inserted in his arm that dripped fluids in.

"You're sick?"

My voice brought his attention to us from his newspaper and he shook his head. "Not sick, child, just old." Marco made a noise beside me, and the larger man turned to him with a look that I couldn't decipher. "Is there something wrong, Marco?"

"She helped bring one of the crates up and said she wanted to meet you." I didn't bother to say that he was the one that brought it up, and he forced me to help by picking me up off the ground because it didn't matter. I did bring a crate up, and I did want to meet this man, so there was nothing really wrong with his phrasing. "She's the girl from last night."

The man waved his large hand. "I know who she is." Marco bowed out of the room when the captain waved his hand for him to leave, and we were left alone. An awkward stare down began between the two of us. He looked me over, and I did the same, though it took longer for my eyes to take in his whole form than he took for me,

After a few minutes, I broke the silence. "My friend Margie has one of those too." I took a step forward and pointed to the bag of fluids. I wasn't sure why I was telling him, and I wasn't sure if she even still used that, but I said it already, and it was too late to take it back. "She had another one for blood too."

"I take it your friend was hurt then."

My hands smoothed over the front of my dress nervously as I hesitated to nod. "Uh, well, she..." I sighed and bowed my head. "Yeah. She was hurt pretty bad."

"Staffy-boy told me about your family." I looked up quickly and frowned. This man was quick to get to the point. "You're alone?" I hesitated, but nodded. He hummed in thought and leaned back in his chair. I fiddled with my dress and toed the ground nervously, watching his hand work his mustache while the other held his cup. What was he thinking? "Well," He began, setting his cup down and leaning forward to be closer to my face, grinning with his eyes closed. "You can come with us and not be alone anymore."

My refusal was at the tip of my tongue, but I stopped myself. I could go with them? Marco had said that this man held family to a higher standard, so it made sense that he would pity someone like me who had no family. But still, would that be okay? To leave, would that be fine? I said nothing of this, and only asked, "Why?"

This had the man leaning back and thinking about that. "You being here isn't good. You have the Will of D running through your veins, correct?" I had no idea, but nodded anyway because that's what everyone else seemed to think. "I don't think you're cursed, child. The people on this island are idiots if they believe that all of that bloodshed was your fault." Josie probably filled them in on the details. "You're a very special child, in fact, and I know that you will do great things in the future. I have no doubt in my mind that you will change the world around you."

Tears sprang to my eyes and, not for the first time, I found myself crying because of someone's words. The only difference was that this time, his kindness was bringing me to tears instead of harsh words, and that hurt just as much if not worse. I brought my arm up to wipe at my eyes, hiding my face from view and sniffling. "If I stay here, I'll die." I sobbed out, moving my arm and instead wiping at my eyes with the heels of my hands.

"That's why I'm offering you to come and join our family."

I sucked in a breath and rubbed my bandaged hands over my face, my tears spilling over my cheeks and falling from my chin in thick droplets. "Is it really okay?" He said nothing, but he didn't have to. It was okay. I could leave. I could go somewhere that's not prejudiced against me for a nonexistent curse. And this was a relief. Such a relief that I couldn't stop crying for a long time, and I sobbed into the silence. Nothing was said until I calmed myself, getting the last of my hiccups out and scrubbing my face clean of any tears, though the tracks and puffiness remained. "What's your name?"

He had went to reading his newspaper once again, so when I spoke, he took his eyes from the words and smiled down at me. "Edward Newgate, though everyone in the world knows me as Whitebeard, and to my family, I'm Pops." I frowned and studied his face harder. "Is something wrong?"

"You...don't even have a beard though."

[A/N]: God, I hope I'm getting these characters right. Do they seem off? Please tell me if they so because I suck at noticing when I have someone OOC until I get some hateful PM that usually goes like "EXCUUUSEEEE ME BUT THEY DO NOT DO THAT IT IS NOT CANON PLEASE FIX IT RIGHT NOW I WILL REPORT YOU" (totally kidding, no one has ever said that, but still...that's how I feel...)

Just thought I should throw it out there that I got a puppy for Christmas. Just saying.

Well, Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or Happy Day Off. Love you guys and see you soon~

XoXoXoXo