Marco was flying his high rounds and watching out for enemy ships (as if; he was enjoying his view and peace that was no longer available on the Moby Dick). He was all alone up here. Seagulls chirped and announced a new island. So quiet. So still. So peaceful. Devil Fruits with wings were rare for a reason. No one could bother him up here. No one could ask him stop a fight or decide an argument, no chores, no duties no worries, no mountains of papers he had to sign (he was a pirate for god's sake! He wasn´t even supposed to have those!)

Ah, peace.

Only the sound of the waves. Birds singing. Air being pushed aside by some fast projectile. Fishes jumping.

Wait wha-

"Ompf!" The impact was surprisingly painful and he deduced from that that it at least wasn´t a bullet or the like. That would have passed right through.

"I hit Marco! I hit him! Yay! I´m getting better!" This laugh sadly meant, however, that he could not sent whatever disturbed his peace to hell.

Familiar elastic limps latched on to him as both Marco and the annoyance that hit him pummeled out of the sky as Marco lost his transformation. He didn´t even bother to try and prevent it. Marco the Phoenix was not able to carry more than thirty kilos as a bird and tragically Luffy was heavier. Tragically, because they were falling to the deep, deep, blue sea. The deadly blue sea. Instead he used every foul and dirty word that came to mind as he cursed Luffy in his face for his stupidity. Luckily (or unluckily; depending on who asked) the idiot´s brothers were no where near them to threaten or otherwise protect Luffy´s innocence (Marco didn´t know why they bothered- the brat was a pirate; foul language was inevitable).

Every insult, of course, went straight past the rubber brain.

The brat just laughed and laughed some more. Only when (after thirty seconds of free fall) Marco pointed out that they were going to die, because they were falling into the sea and the Moby Dick was quite a bit away and the water was already freaking close and that Marco couldn´t carry them Luffy got it in his head to panic. In a loud and whiny way. About damn time, Marco thought.

He collided painfully with the surface and everything went the dimmed tone of blue he associated with drowning (and/or death).

Almost unconscious Marco felt something touch him, but only when he was thrown on deck directly out of the sea his brain got back to work. Spluttering some water he recognized one shadow. All kinds of curses sprang to mind and he had no problem voicing them. That was as soon as he could get up and actually take a normal breath.

Drowning was not fun. And neither was surviving it.

Slowly sitting up, using one arm for support he nailed his glare at the two people who leaned over the pain in the ass that got Marco to sink into the sea in the first place.

A crowd had once again formed around them; without a doubt his siblings were not willing to miss the coming showdown that was guaranteed to be the ship´s gossip for some time. Off task Marco was amazed that in only about three minutes (anymore and he would have died) word got around and half the crew had scrambled to watch.

On task Marco was just opening his mouth to throw the worst insults possible to his two (the third was still out of it) youngest brothers, when Ace and Sabo both caught his eye.

"What the heck, Marco! What kind of idiot are you? You almost drowned!"

Marco didn´t even bother to notice that he had been turned from the accuser to the accused. It hardly mattered. His mind was to busy screaming insults.

"That´s my line! I almost drowned! Why the freaking hell didn´t you stop your idiot of a brother?

"How were we supposed to know that you are too stupid to fly once hit?

"`cause I can´t carry a thing, that`s how!"

"What kind of Phoenix are ya if ya can´t?"

"A normal one!"

"That still doesn´t explain how we were supposed to know!"

"You could have asked!"

Suddenly both expressions changed from enraged to very confused. The brothers traded a glance only to give Marco a blanc look that just screamed you-are-an-idiot.

"That´d be boring", they answered at the same time in the same deadpan voice.

Marco groaned and buried his face in his hands, deliberately ignoring all his siblings´ laughter. Sometimes Marco wondered if Oyaji had wanted them as his new sons just so that he could get back at him for all the times he had confiscated Oyaji´s oh-so-precious sake (which by the way was quite dangerous to Oyaji if consumed in masses).

Luffy fine-tuned his Rocket´s aim. Necessary, of course, since he can´t practice in his home forest anymore and Moby Dick´s deck is only so large. It just happened that Luffy forgot to inform Marco of his intention (Ace and Sabo thought it would be a great joke).

Anyway, this is the shortest story I have written so far and it was a nice experience to create a scene with only so little words.

This is the second chapter of the Moby Dick´s Tales series, but it has no direct connection.

Please comment/review again and tell me what you think.

And if you have ideas that you´d like to see worded don´t hesitate and inform me.