Title: Night Watch

Genre: Humor (or at least, my attempts to be humorous)

Summary: Thatch has a bit of a difficulty making Apollo understand the crow's nest is not his nest.

When Thatch was asked to be on night watch, he expected to have a nice, quiet evening spent in the crow's nest with a fuzzy blanket and a bottle of rum. He thought he would spend the hours in lovely solitude watching the stars and the sky turn from a velvety navy to a pale periwinkle. He knew what to do in case of an emergency, like some poor chap trying to kill Pops; a fire (thanks to the idiots in charge of the lanterns); or even if the boat started to sink (definitely the worse thing that could happen, seeing as there were Devil Fruit users on board).

Thatch grabbed a bottle of rum from the kitchen, expertly sneaking it out from under the eyes of Haruta and the twelfth division. He took a blanket from a pile of spares in a hall closet and headed up to the deck, nodding at a few members as a way of saying good night. He reached the deck and stretched, before reaching the ropes leading up to the crow's nest. This was the real struggle. He tucked the bottle of rum into the yellow sash at his waist, and the blanket he tied around his shoulders. He made it to the top of the ropes without a problem. The problem lay inside the crow's nest itself. For in the crow's nest, lay sleeping the one thing Thatch had not accounted for in his list of bad situations.

Lying there peacefully, without a care in the world, was Apollo, the large golden eagle and faithful companion of Aerie. Thatch stared at the bird, completely unsure of what to do next. The only one the giant bird listened to was Aerie. Without her, Thatch seriously doubted he could convince him that he needed the crow's nest more than the bird did. However, it was pretty late, so Aerie was probably asleep. Thatch was, after all, a gentleman, and gentlemen did not wake ladies from their beauty sleep, especially since this particular lady had just returned from traveling that evening. Thatch sighed. Looks like he'd have to do this his way.

"Alright buddy," he said to the giant bird. "Looks like you're going to have to get up."

The bird didn't even wake up. Thatch sighed and moved the be at his side. He put his hands on his shoulder. "Apollo, move." He ordered.

Apollo opened one of his big, brown eyes, and the next thing Thatch knew was flying through the air. He crashed on the deck flat on his back, giving him the perfect view of Apollo peering over the edge of the crow's nest at him.

"Stupid bird!" He called up. Apollo merely drew his head back and presumably went back to sleep. Grumbling, Thatch got to his feet and glared at the bird. He needed to be up in the crow's nest, but without Aerie, he doubted he could even get in there.

I'm not going to wake her up, though. She just got back! Thatch thought to himself. He put a hand on his chin and rubbed it contemplatively. An idea came to his mind and he scurried into the kitchen. He came out with a large chunk of meat and quickly climbed the ladder again.

Just as he suspected, Apollo had fallen asleep again. Thatch had to say his name twice before he even cracked an eyelid open. He cautiously held out his bait to the bird of prey and smiled toothily.

"Hey buddy," he said, "I got some tasty meat for you here." Apollo raised his head to look at the meat greedily. He stretched his neck to take the meat from Thatch's hand, but the pirate drew his hand back out of his reach. "Ah-ah-ah. You have to leave the crow's nest if you want it."

Apollo looked mildly irritated that he hadn't gotten the treat. A sly gleam came into his eyes that Thatch didn't like one bit. Moving faster than one would expect from a bird his size, Apollo lunged forward and grabbed the meat in his beak. Thatch was so startled that he jumped back, only to find himself already at the railing. With this action, he slowly tipped backwards...

...and fell out of the crow's nest again.

As he found himself on his back on the deck, again, Thatch hear the bird making a strange coughing noise. His jaw dropped and his eyes narrowed as he realized what was going on. He's laughing at me! This was the last straw for Thatch. He angrily got to his feet, already planning his next move.

When he next came up the mast, he held his sword in his hand. "Alright bird," he spat. Apollo raised his head and glared at the man. "This ends now!" He lunged at the golden eagle.

Apollo simply flapped his wings once in order to dodge the attack. He landed on Thatch's head, instantly crushing his pompadour. Thatch let out a growl of frustration and tried to swipe at the bird again, but Apollo knocked the sword from his hand. With a screech, Apollo took off holding Thatch in his talons. Desperately, he fumbled to grasp at the bird's leg, but he let go before the man could. Thatch landed once more on the deck, but this time, he fell unconscious.

The last thing Thatch saw was an undefeated Apollo flying back to his "nest".

~...~

Aerie woke up feeling refreshed. She had gotten straight to bed when she arrived back on the ship, stopping only to tell Pops how her mission had gone. Surprisingly, she had a full night's sleep, with no annoying interruptions from other crew members.

Stretching, she slowly got dressed in the cabin she shared with Eliza, careful to not wake the redheaded nurse. She quietly left the room to go on deck to find Marco and go to breakfast. As she came on deck, she beheld a curious sight.

Thatch was lying, spread-eagle in the center of the deck, right under the crow's nest. His prized pompadour was messed up, with feathers sticking every which way out of his hair. She looked up at the sky, wondering what could have caused this phenomenon. Shrugging, she left her brother to sleep, and went to the galley for breakfast.

Savage Kill: Ah! If it isn't my old friend, Savage Kill! Long time, no see! Haha I was beginning to think you forgot about me ;). I can totally see that too! Am I detecting a new one-shot? Ugh, really?! I just updated and you want another?! You're killing me here, man! ;) As always, thanks for the review!

Hah. I finally updated! Sorry if this one seems lame. I started it a long while back and just finished it. Hope you enjoyed!

Favorite! Follow! Review!

~BatmanSwim2016