Friendship

After her unusual arrival on board the Moby Dick Fox spent four months sailing with them. Much to Marco's dismay it proved impossible to break her of her habit of wrapping herself around him at night; even when he tried to sleep elsewhere she somehow found him and when Izo pointed out that the teen sleepwalked across the ship with unerring accuracy to wherever he happened to be every single night he gave up fighting it and let her do as she pleased.

Marco also learnt what she was capable of: she was frighteningly fast, brilliant with knives and her skill with both Kenbunshoku and Busoshoku Haki was incredible. Her combat style was based on speed, evasion and precise strikes to vulnerable points rather than straight combat; an assassin's style. Marco had never seen anything like it before and wasn't sure whether to be impressed or appalled that she could beat most of the Division Commanders several times in a row. After seeing her take down Kingdew, Thatch and Jozu in quick succession Whitebeard had laughed long and hard then promptly invited her to join his crew. Fox had refused instantly.

"I have a father already and I wouldn't renounce him for anything," she said simply. The captain had accepted her answer, but told her the invitation stood regardless.

Fox left the Moby Dick at Fishman Island, running into the arms of a dozen mermaids of various ages and sizes who fussed over her and dragged her away from the Whitebeard Pirates with impressive speed. Fox' mother, the navy-haired mermaid he had first met all those years previously, remained behind to thank both Marco and Whitebeard profusely for looking after her daughter. Marco took the opportunity to share with her what little he had learnt of the circumstances of her prolonged absence, in particular that she had been enslaved.

"That I knew," the mermaid –who had introduced herself as Pearl– spat angrily. "That damned Donflamingo!"

"Donflamingo?" Marco repeated curiously.

"He lifted her right off the street!" Pearl fumed. "If I didn't have so many people depending on me he would not be walking around today!"

Marco had left the conversation there, taking note that Fox' mother was no less dangerous than her father, though in a markedly different way.

Marco did not see Fox again until she was seventeen, but after that she ran into the Whitebeard Pirates every month or so, if only for a few days at a time. The fleet had adopted her as a little sister over the years and her astounding ability to remember absolutely everyone by face if not by name made her a great favourite with the crew. However it was not until Fox was nearly nineteen and Portgas D. Ace wound up on board the Moby Dick that things started getting interesting. Or, more accurately, highly entertaining to watch for everyone other than Fire Fist himself.

Marco's first indication that things were not quite as they should be was when he woke without the feeling of Fox' body pressed against him when he knew she was on board the ship. She had not dropped the habit of clinging to him in her sleep, though he had learnt that he wasn't the only person she did that to; dropped jaws had abounded when Fox had candidly admitted that she did it to Shanks as well, among other people.

His second indication had been the slightly panicked scream that had rocked the ship from the room Ace was currently occupying. Marco had been the first on the scene and had found his lips twitching at the sight of their quasi-prisoner's outraged confusion at having a strange, scantily clad woman in his bed, her arms tightly wrapped around him so he couldn't get away.

"Congratulations," Marco said in amusement as Thatch came to see what the fuss was about. "You've joined the rarefied company of people who really need to stay on the good side of Dracule Mihawk."

"What the hell are you on about?!" Ace had growled, trying and failing to untangle himself. As time passed and Fox had recovered from her ordeal she had become a much, much heavier sleeper and exponentially more irritable if woken early. Marco found watching somebody else suffer something he had put up with for years to be very cathartic.

"That," Marco pointed at Fox, "Is Mihawk's daughter and she seems to have made you her new favourite pillow."

Ace twitched then blanched. "Hawk-Eyes daughter? The Shichibukai?" Marco nodded. "Get her off me!"

"Ah, ah," Marco shook his head, "bad idea. She gets very, very grumpy if you wake her up before she's ready. As in violently, homicidally grumpy."

"And Marco would know," Thatch butted in with a smile, "as up until last night he was the one waking up like that whenever she visited."

Ace sagged a little. "But I'm hungry!" he whined. Marco took pity on the poor young man and knelt next to his bunk.

"Fox?" he said clearly but calmly, stroking her face. "It's morning: time to get up."

Fox' arms tightened around the unfortunate Ace. "Don' wanna," she slurred, eyes closed and voice sleepy. "M comfy."

"Oh?" Marco inquired, sensing a blackmail opportunity.

"M," Fox crooned. "Warm. S'wunnerful." She snuggled closer into her captive's chest.

By the door Thatch had one hand firmly over his mouth to muffle his snickers while the other was gripping his stomach. Ace looked completely mortified at having been reduced to a hot water bottle and stared at Marco imploringly.

"Please," he begged, "I'll do anything. Help."

Marco relented a little. "Thatch, buzz off and shut the door." The Fourth Division Commander did so, likely to share the story with the rest of the crew.

Ace looked miserable but determined. "What do I do?" he asked.

"First, tell me why you're so desperate to get away," Marco countered.

Ace looked unhappy. "I don't want her to kill me when she wakes up."

Marco blinked. "Why would she? She obviously like and trusts you enough to fall asleep on you."

Ace looked utterly poleaxed by that revelation. "Why?"

"Why wouldn't she?"

"The first time I met her I tried to kill her," Ace said bluntly, "and the second time she mugged me and held me at knifepoint."

Marco did not laugh, however much he wanted to; he hadn't known Fox and Ace had a history. "Well she seems to have gotten past that," he pointed out carefully, "So perhaps you two could start over?"

Ace glanced down at the woman wrapped around his chest and sagged. "Why me?" he mumbled.

"You know, I've asked her that very question over a hundred times in the past four years," Marco told him, "and I'm yet to get a straight answer."

"You're trustworthy," Fox muttered, squirming in a way Marco knew from experience felt profoundly disconcerting. "An' you feel nice."

Ace blushed almost purple. Marco had mercy.

"Fox doesn't trust easily, but those few she does trust she is very, very tactile with. It isn't sexual; think of it as having been adopted by a very big, predatory cat," he offered. "She'll flop all over you at mealtime and during down time and cuddle up at night, but it's the physical contact she craves, nothing more. I think it has something to do with her Devil Fruit Ability but she doesn't like to talk about it; she didn't eat one by choice."

Ace looked a little hopeless. "But, but..."

"Hm?" Marco encouraged him.

"She's completely gorgeous! How the hell am I supposed to just-" Ace stopped talking, suddenly aware that he was digging himself into a hole. Marco couldn't help the smile.

"You'll adapt," he promised.

Ace did indeed adapt, possibly a bit too well. After he joined Whitebeard's crew Fox visited more often, sometimes boarding the Moby Dick late in the evening, crawling in bed with Ace and then leaving right after breakfast. During her rarer, longer visits it became normal to see them messing around together or napping wrapped around each-other on deck like a pair of puppies.

Marco however began to seriously worry about the likelihood of Hawk-Eyes murdering the Whitebeard Pirates Second Division Commander when he caught Ace and Fox skinny dipping together on Foodvalten sixteen months after Fire Fist joined the crew. True, they were acting like a couple of kids and having a no-holds-barred water fight, but Mihawk was not known for being patient or understanding where his daughter was concerned. He tried to talk to Fox about it but the young woman was completely unhelpful.

"It was just some fun, Marco. We were messing around in the water and I stole his hat, then things sort-of went downhill from there. No-one got hurt."

"You were both stark naked," Marco felt obliged to point out, feeling his age. Fox was like a daughter to him but he had little actual influence over her actions.

"So? I'm part mermaid, Marco. Nudity isn't something I was raised to be ashamed of." Fox sighed. "I only wear as much clothes as I do for my father's sake; he doesn't like me showing off my body in public."

Marco would have been quite happy not to have known that.

Ace and Fox' history.