Edit: As I am obsessed with the Whitebeard Pirates and can't stop having ideas for short scenes involving them, I've decided to turn this into a one-shot and drabble collection, and from now on I'll post all the short things I write about the crew in here.

I got this idea out of nowhere and had to write it. I hope you like it, and thanks to Aerle for betaing it :)

Moniker

Edward Newgate swung the pole, the remaining part of his bisento that had broke during the previous battle, around, sending a group of unfortunate marines flying straight into the ocean.

The men around him hesitated visibly, some of them going as far as to take a step back, and clung to their weapons, though most of them had already run out of bullets.

He heard screams further down the deck and out of the corner of his eye saw the telltale blue flames of the brat's ability.

Marco was a teenage brat that had been a cabin boy on an enemy pirate ship until a week ago, when both that ship and the one Newgate was part of the crew had fought with what could only be deemed tragic consequences. The two ships had received substantial damage, enough to make them sink. The two devil fruit users had escaped on a boat. Or, more accurately, Newgate had escaped on a boat, having been unable to find any living crewmember on his way out of the sinking ship, and a blue bird had landed on board, turning into the brat. The two had recognized the other wasn't part of his crew but, after exchanging some insults and threats, had decided to cooperate. Newgate had a boat and Marco had rescued a very nice looking crate of food, so it seemed only logical to stay together.

They had floated aimlessly, unable to find any islands in the vast Grand Line with no log pose to guide them, until an hour ago when the brat came back from one of his flights announcing he had spotted a ship. A marine ship.

The marines hadn't even thought they were a threat to them, and the two pirates hadn't planned to attack them, just to ask for help, taking advantage of the fact that neither of them were wanted criminals. Then someone on board, probably the now dead commodore that had commanded the ship, had decided they looked like criminals and ordered to sink them.

Newgate had been impressed and very surprised when the brat took all the cannonballs head on without getting even a scratch and then, when Marco had flown to the ship, the marines had fired almost all their ammunition trying to take him down. Once the ocean trembled below them, there had been terrified screams.

"Oi, Pops! I got some stuff!" Came Marco's yell right before he landed next to him. 'Pops' was how the brat had taken to calling him around the time Newgate started to call him 'son'. Certainly, this wasn't what he had had in mind when he said his dream was to have a family, but Newgate realized Marco was a son he liked to have.

"Log pose?" Marco nodded. "Food?"

"Yeah, and some maps, a den den mushi, and all that. We're ok to go."

Newgate looked around, at the marines that hadn't really tried to attack during the short conversation and the destroyed deck due to the few small earthquakes he had decided to summon.

"What about them?"

Marco chuckled and smirked at him.

"They won't be able to follow, I broke their rudder, but if you want to kill them…"

There were yelps at Marco's suggestion, and more men scrambled to get away from them. Newgate laughed.

"Nah, let's go."

Edward Newgate ran his hand over his chin, satisfied at the soft feeling of skin under his fingers. It had been really annoying, during their days adrift, to not even have a pocket knife. Luckily now they were well supplied of anything they might need until their first stop and, thanks to Marco's surprisingly good navigation skills, they were also well in their way to the next island.

A chuckle drew his attention to his son and only other occupant of their small boat, and he found the boy looking straight at him, newspaper in hand.

"What?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow at Marco, who chuckled again.

"You might want to grow the beard again, Pops." And he raised a sheet of paper that turned out to be one of the wanted posters that came with the newspaper.

Edward Newgate, Whitebeard, burst out laughing.

"The hell I'm growing that again." He stated, laughed some more, and then added: "Though I wouldn't mind a moustache."