A/N: This is the longest chapter I've ever written, don't expect anything this lengthy every time, just thought I'd try to write a longer chapter than my usual length. It's really hard, but it's at least gotten my mind of things I'd rather not think about right now.
We had to put my dog to sleep the other day, and it's been really hard, I've chaired a room with him for almost 12years and it's left a hole in my heart aswell as my life.
Anyway! Plzz enjoy and I hope you like it, don't forget to Review!
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Her tuff of jet-black hair almost stood on end as he watched the people below him with narrowed eyes.
She'd been lounging around in the trees for several day's now, watching the many workers carry loads of boxes, barrels and, several others stuff she could only guess on what it was onboard a large ship with a white whale figurehead in front.
They had been stumbling around in the thick forest surroundings for almost a week now, making it hard for her to move about without being seen, she didn't want to be seen, her big brother's would never let her live it down if she were seen by strangers, let alone presumably visious pirates judging by their looks.
Speaking of her brother's, he'd been gone without telling them she would be for almost three days.
If he didn't visit them soon they'd tear down the forest looking for her.
With that in mind she stood up on the thick branch he'd been lying on and stretched her sore mussels, her back making a faint popping sound in protest.
She looked down, checking for the coast to be clear before she went off, jumping from tree limb to tree limb, only, she failed to notice the man watching him from above, only a few branches away, the man gave a curious hum before jumping down, landing on his both feet in a swift motion.
The man wore a open purple shirt, showing off his well muscled torso, a light blue sash tied around around waist along a intricate golden yellow belt.
The man's face seemed permanently set into a sleepy droopy eyed look which made him seem like the lied back kind of person. Although his attire did kind of catch ones attention, it were nothing compared to the attention his hair got, styled up in the middle of his scalp in a fashion that made it look like the greenery on a pineapple.
The man's eyes followed to where the small child had disappeared to before turning back to walk back to the ship.
He were greeted by his fellow crewmates once he exited the forest.
"Yo! Marco, where ya' been man?"Thatch, a man in his mid twenties, his brown hair styled in a pompadour faction called, walking up to his fellow commander.
"Nowhere in particular, checking the surrounding area, yoi"
"Ah, that so? Find anything interesting?" Marco's mouth quirked up into a smile.
"You could say that" he replied, once again making his way towards the large ship, intent on telling pop's about his discovery.
"Eh? Really? What? Where?" Thatch exclaimed, curiosity and excitement clearly written on his scared face.
Marco didn't respond and simply walked passed Thatch onboard the large ship.
He made his way towards the large throne by the mast where his captain were resting, wires and tubes connected to his much larger form.
Thatch walked passed him and stood by the other division commanders percent on the Moby dick, he gave Marco a large grin as he did so.
"Oyaji, there's something I need to tell you"
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The way back to her brother's didn't take as long as she had thought it would, she had only had sneak around five pirates still stumbling around the forest.
"Ace! Sabo!" she called when she was below their tree house, in barely five seconds there was a crash and Ace were lying sprawled on the ground just a few meter away from where she were standing. The boy were a little older then her with childish freckles adoring his cheeks and with the same dark raven hair she had, he were wearing a light red top with some kind of kanji and written on it and dark gray pants.
"Tch! That hurt damn it!" the pre-teen hissed between gritted teeth.
"Ace? You alright?"
"Ah! Luffy!" the raven haired boy shouted before lounging himself at the smaller form "Where the hell did you go, we've been searching everywhere for you!"
"Ah… Well.." sweat started running down her face in droplets "I've been… around, went to visit Makino"
"Lies." A voice came from above in the tree house "Why try lying when you know you caan't get away with it?"
"Ah! Sabo-nii!" she raised her hand at the blond boy that were making his way down the rope ladder, he were wearing what looked like old and jagged noble attire, a top hat with goggles around it adoring his blond head.
"So Luffy, where have you been?"
"Ah… unnn…" her face were turning red with the effort she were putting into making up a believable excuse.
"Lu" Ace warning tone came from behind her, her two brothers were now towering over her, making her feel significantly smaller.
She looked down and muttered something under her breath, hoping her brothers would give up when they couldn't hear her.
"Louder" Ace commanded, his voice sharp.
"I went to watch the pirates!"
Ace and Sabo's face turned first white then red with anger.
"You idiot!" Ace then proceeded to hit her over the head, making a fist sized appear on her head seconds later.
"That hurt!" she whined, rubbing the sore spot where he had punched her.
"Come on Ace, calm down" Sabo put a reassuring hand on Ace's shoulder, which only seemed to anger him more.
"Calm down? How the hell can I calm down?! She's been gone for three days, three days, she could have been captured and sold to some sleazy old man for all we knew, and your telling me to calm down?!" he raised his fist and brought it down on her head again, making another pump appear on the other bump.
Tears were running down her face as she stared at her brother's, Sabo having to hold Ace back before he went and hit her again, she stood up from where she had fallen down, stared at Ace and Sabo again "Sorry!" she screamed, running away from the two now frozen boy's.
"Shit!" Sabo and Ace cursed in unison before setting off after their little sister.
They had been searching for Luffy for a hour soon and really started to get worried, Luffy always got reckless when she were upset and didn't always watch where she was going, and more often than not got get self hurt by doing so.
"Where the hell could she have gone" Ace huffed, his back leaning against a tree.
"I.. I don't know" Sabo huffed back, sweat running down his red face.
Ace suddenly froze "Hey Sabo, you don't think she-" he broke off, Sabo had apparently been thinking the same as he did for his face suddenly looked rather pale.
"She… she wouldn't, not after all we-" he also broke off, he glanced at Ace and they both nodded their heads in unison.
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Luffy curled up into a ball on the large tree she were resting on, Ace and Sabo had been mat at her for going off alone to watch the pirates, Ace had even hit her, twice. He only did that when he was really mad. She sniffled silently to herself, teardrops still rolling down her round cheeks.
She had to get her emotions under control before her brother's found her, they would be even more mad if they saw that she had lost control over her devil fruit powers, and she didn't want to make them hate her even more.
She raised a hand to scratch the pointy black cat ears that now adored her head, she didn't really get why she couldn't show others her cat ears and car tail, she thought they were neat, her brothers had been clear that she were never to show others that form.
Her ears twitched as a faint rustle reached her ears, she glanced around herself but couldn't see anyone else.
A sudden shifting on the tree limb she were sitting on made her turn her head and instantly freeze, just a few meters, on the edge of the tree stood a blond haired man.
She backed up, glancing around herself to see if there were any mean to escape, no, the nearest tree were too far away for her to jump to. Damn it.
"Easy, I'm not going to hurt you, yoi" he held up his hand's to show that he meant no harm, she growled low as he took another step closer to her.
Getting to her feet she took up a fighting stance that Ace and Sabo had taught her, readying herself if he tried anything.
The man simply raised an eyebrow and let his hands drop, only to be showed into his pants pockets.
"Like I said, I'm not going to hurt you, I just want to talk"
She relaxed a little but was ready to fight if she had to.
"I'm Marco, I'm with the pirates stocking up on food" he pointed down to the ground, she hadn't noticed till now that she had run all the way back here till now "And you are?" Marco asked her. Luffy have him a wary smile.
"Luffy" she replied shortly.
Marco nodded, and glanced at her shortly before returning his gaze back to the pirates walking back and forth below them.
"Do your parent know you're out here yoi?" he glanced at her once again "I mean, you can't be older than what, eight?"
"Seven" she bit her lips, a nervous look etched on her small face.
"And your parents?"
Silence fell over the small group and Luffy did everything she could to avoid Marco's searching gaze which only made Marco's suspicion grow,
"You don't have any, do you yoi?" the pout that formed on her lips were dead giveaway. Luffy sighed and met Marco's dark eyes.
"No, not really" she answered, her eyes downcast, she suddenly sucked in a mouth full of air and her demeanor made full 180 "But I two brothers, their all I need!" proclaimed, her voice held no doubt.
Marco smiled "Is that so" the girl nodded energetically with large toothy grin plastered on her lips.
"Uh huh!"
"Well then, Luffy. Where are these brothers of yours?" he looked around, trying to see if he could see any more children hiding in the greenery of the forest.
"Ah, well" Luffy scratched her head sheepishly "We… kind of had a fight.. I made them mad"
Marco quirked and eyebrow and hummed non committedly "that's usually the case with brother's, isn't it?"
Luffy gave small nod, black cat ears flattening down on her equally dark hair "They didn't want me-" she suddenly froze, her face taking on a paler hue "Oh no, oh no, oh no!" she started pulling her hair franticly, her gaze searching their surrounding "their gonna kill me!"
All Marco could do was watch in fascination as the small girl got up, and climbed higher up in the tree, where you couldn't spot her from the ground.
Marco sweat dropped as she poked her head out of the green shrubbery above him.
"They forbid me from coming here" she explained, her eyes frightened. Marco nodded, knowing how overprotective older siblings could get.
"Oi!" a familiar voice came from below the tree the both were sitting in "Marco! You damn slacker!" Thatch screeched, stomping his foot angrily on the ground.
Marco looked up in the tree to where Luffy had just been and were slightly take aback when he saw stars glimmering in the small girls eyes as she watched Thatch with large sparkling eyes.
The next thing he knew he watched the same small shy girl jump down from the top of ridiculously tall tree, straight towards the startled Thatch.
He were just about to launch himself at the rapidly falling girl to try catch her when she made a series of twirls in the air and landed gracefully by the forth commanders feet, stars in her eyes as she watched the shocked commander.
"Hey mister, mister! Why do you have a bread stuck on your head?!" Thatch still in shock just stared at the small form in front of him.
Marco coulden't help but let out a snort at the girls question which apparently made Thatch come to since he scowled at the girl.
"Now, now little miss, this isn't bread" he bent down to be in level with the black haired child and to prove his point by letting her examine his hair.
The pout that appeared after discovering that the man's hair was indeed not bread was adorable that Thatch felt kind of bad for spoiling the girl's fun.
"Ah, but we do have bread on the ship, made them myself just this morning, and I must say their delicious" the shin in her eyes renewed at the mere thought and she gladly accepted the invitation to visit their ship, totally forgetting that she wasn't supposed to even be near the ship.
"Ah, I'm Thatch by the way" the pompadour man introduced himself to the small girl, with a large grin on his face "The fourth commander on the Moby Dick and head chef in the kitchen"
The moth grownups chuckled at the awed expression on Luffy's face.
"I'm Luffy, Monkey D. Luffy" she introduced herself in turn.
"Monkey D." Thatch pondered aloud "Sounds familiar"
He placed a hand on her raven locks and ruffled them playfully, making a soft purring sound erupt from Luffy.
"You really are a fun kid, brat" he chuckled and ruffled her hair once again.
It didn't take them long to arrive at the large whale shaped ship, and once they did Thatch had to pick up the over energetic brat and carry her on his shoulders as to not lose her in the bustle on the large ship.
"Hey, Luffy, want to meet our captain yoi?" Luffy's eyes grew large and she gave large happy grin in response, making Marco smile fondly.
"Woooow!" Luffy exclaimed once they stood in front of Whitebeards throne like chair "He's huuuuuge~" she then jumped down from thatch's shoulders, landing on all four.
"Luffy, this is our captain, White beard" white beard chuckled at the girl's starry eyed gaze and bent down to get a better look at the child, making some of the tubes and needles poop out.
"Pop's, this is Luffy, Monkey D. Luffy" Thatch introduced, gesturing for the small girl "We met her on the island, or more like, Marco met her and I were attacked by her" he chuckled light heartedly and ruffled Luffy's hair, making her pout.
"So, you live on this island, brat?" Luffy bobbed her head up and down.
"Yeah, me and my brother's, Ace and Sabo-" her sentence were cut short by Luffy holding her hands over her mouth, her face a paler hue "A-ahh, I think I need to go, they're probably looking for me" she stammered, taking a few steps back.
"Luffy?" Thatch asked when said girl bumped into his legs "You alright?" he put his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm the girl down.
"uh huh, yeah I'm fine. I just really need to get out of here before-"a sudden crash and shouts cut her off and her face grew even paler "they come looking for me" her tail sticking out of her blue shorts suddenly found its way between her legs and her cat ears pressed tightly against her head.
Thatch and Marco walked to the reeling of the ship to see what the commotion were all about and froze at what they saw, two boy's, around nine or ten were knocking their crew around as if it were nothing.
Marco looked down and saw Luffy hanging over the reeling and watching the whole thing with indifferent eyes.
"Do they always do this?" he asked and received a nod from the small girl "Yeah, but they're really sketchy around pirates after a the Bluejam incident"
Marco frowned and turned his gaze from the little girl back to the fighting boy's below.
"Ace! Sabo!" Luffy suddenly shouted, making Thatch jump at the shrill tone of it. The both boy's turned once they heard their little sisters voice and glared at the pirated standing beside her.
"Luffy!" Ace yelled, running towards the ship in long quick steps, Luffy waved her hands at her brother's happily although a little stiffly.
It didn't take the black haired brother long to reach the ship, the blond staying back to hold the remaining whitebeard pirates at bay.
Luffy looked back at Marco and Thatch and gave them a large goofy smile "It was nice meeting you Thatchy and pineapple head" she giggled before turning to white beard "Bye bye Mr. Giant!" she were waving her hands and was then suddenly gone a blurr of black and red.
Thatch looked around searching for the little ball of energy but couldn't see her anywhere.
"There, yoi" Marco's voice interrupted his searching and pointed towards the forest the had exited earlier where a blurr of red blue and yellow were disappearing fast.
"Woooah! Those kids are really something!" thatch whistled and turned back to whitebeard "I really like them, don't you, pops?"
END!
To Be Continued!