KyuuKyuuMoo here. Izou and His Brothers and Thatch's Bad Day are supposed to be one shot, but I decided to break Izou and His Brothers into a few chapters while Thatch's Bad Day suddenly turned into something I want to continue. So both stories are stated as still continuing. But of course, this Izou and His Brothers is written thanks to a certain person's message, which the person's nick happens to be yuzukikuran476. It was simple messages intending to find answers, but with that messages I got the idea to write. So please enjoy this family love story (?). Oh! Cover image is not mine. I found it by googling. And OnePiece is Lord Oda's.

Izou sometimes travels with his division men, somewhere with thrills and adventures, to keep them motivated and they did it alone; no other commanders or allies. Just hop on their smaller ship and sail away for a few days or weeks. The other divisions also travel away for a vacation, but unlike the sixteenth division they do it in pairs or groups.

Thatch usually took Ace with him, Haruta took either Curiel or Jozu or both if they're allowed to use baby Moby. Vista went along with whoever asked him, he never initiated it because the swordsman worry too much; "What if Ace drown? What if Marco fell while patrolling? What if—" a never ending pattern of what if. And Commander Marco, he doesn't take vacation.

"My vacation is when one of you guys took one. Especially if Thatch and Ace are away, yoi"

Izou has been invited a lot of times by his brothers; Thatch said it's a lot more fun in groups. But Izou thought then it will be no different from staying in Moby Dick, with all of his brothers. The sixteenth commander loves his family. His silly brothers, their weird antics, the way they would flocks around Thatch when he made sweets, or how they would run in panics when Marco overslept, he loves all of that and all of them. Of course there are moments where Izou wanted to blow Ace's head, or slices Atmos's stomach open and have Namur feed him to the sharks.

But Izou loves his brothers. When Thatch replaces his shampoo with smelly gooey slime, Izou only twist his leg because he loves his brother, not because Marco said not to amputate Thatch. When Ace accidentally burned his kimono when doing cleaning duty, Izou only throw the boy overboard with Namur in tail, not because Oyaji was watching them. When Vista cut Izou's cheek in one of their mock battle, Izou only smiled and congratulated him instead of blowing a hole in the swordsman head, of course not because Vista looked so scared and pale.

Izou loves his brothers, whatever their antics. Even if he ran away in the middle of the night with his men—of course he got Oyaji's permission—because something Thatch did, he still loves his brothers. Even if his feeling for one of his brother is a lot more than his feeling for the other brothers, he still loves his brothers.

Izou loves his brothers, all of his brothers know about this. As a commander, he's strict yet considerate; he noticed Blenheim's silly crush before everyone else, he would always be ready to wipes Ace's face after his narcolepsy attack in the middle of eating. Even though the nurses are skilled ladies—both with sharp equipment and their bodies—most of the commanders prefer Izou when it comes to sewing or fashion advices. It's not that the nurses are bad; they're good in their own ways. But according to anonymous sources, the nurses are manipulative clawed harpies hiding behind the angel face they showed to their father.

There was this one time where Ace got grounded by Marco because he burned the railing, the boy wasn't allowed to leave the ship and has to help the nurses with stocking. So Marco left the boy with the ladies in great health, but when he returned to check up on Ace, the poor fire boy was tied and unconscious. According to Ace, the nurses was betting on how long it would take him to escape but one of the nurses got crazy and hit him, with haki. When Oyaji asked, they said it was accident, they were bored at first but then Ace kept resisting and they had to calm him down somehow. The harpies got away with wide smiles while Ace kept the bump he got from the crazy harpy and Haruta called him wuss.

"Thatch", a voice called out. That sounds like Marco, my dear first commander brother.

"Stop narrating to the wind, yoi. If you got time to waste, finish your paper", it is my dear brother, Marco's voice.

Turning around, I gave my charming smile to my dear brother. "Stop narrating in your head too" he said.

"Don't bully me, Marco!" I said. My pineapple head brother just sighed and walked away.

"Hey, where are you going? How could you leave the mighty me alone? Marco!" I called, following not far behind him. No matter how awesome he's at masking his emotions, the mighty me is his precious darling little brother. If I can't read his emotions, then I'm not worthy of that title.

At a glance, he might look normal; lazy face void of emotions. But I know that he's annoyed, worried and angry at the same time.

No, I'm not giving out the details about how I know! It's the privilege we have, as his brothers! I'm not gonna let some random mind reader passerby to understand my brothers more than I do!

"Thatch?" a voice called from behind me. When I looked behind, it was Jozu with this silly 'you mad bro' face.

"So Izou ran away?"

"No, Thatch. Izou took a vacation" Marco said, with a heavy tone behind each word.

"In the middle of the night? Without telling anyone—aside from Oyaji?" Haruta asked, head tilting slightly to the right. Blamenco and Namur tilted their head in unison not far behind the 12th commander.

"Well, is it so strange? Vista and Thatch once sail away in the dead of the night. If it wasn't for Marco, we wouldn't notice until breakfast" Ace shrugged, pointing to the chef lightly.

"Ace my boy; you've been in the group for a while, right?" Thatch shook his head in mock disappointment. Both Ace and Jozu nodded dumbly, not understanding the point, "But I'm not your boy" said the fire fist softly.

"Well, Ace, have you ever received anything from Izou in any state other than perfection?" the chef pokes his index finger to Ace's bare chest, which received a scowl from the boy.

"Stop it!"

"Thatch got point, even if he's idiot" Vista said, looking straight to Marco.

"Hey!"

"Izou's definition of perfection is not about appearance, it's about the mannerism" the swordsman continued.

"Eh, what?" the second commander asked dumbfounded.

"Right now I'm very worried about you, Ace. I think you need training from Marco" Thatch said with a sorrowful tone, perfectly hiding a silly laugh.

"Oh, shut it!"

"It means Izou got his etiquette lesson covered, fire brain" Haruta said with a frown, "Taking a sudden vacation in the middle of the night without informing us, at least Marco, is very—"

"Not Izou" Thatch finished, back to business. The temperature dropped as soon as the chef finished, the reality of the situation finally hit them. Except for Ace, each one of the pirates looks very conflicted and confused.

"Oyaji" the voice of the first commander shook away any illusion the boys were having. When they all turned to look at the commander, they saw that Marco had moved from leaning against the railing to standing in front of the strongest man.

"Oyaji, why won't you tell us what happened?" Marco asked calmly, face and voice void of any emotion.

"Marco, my sons, don't you believe in Izou?" Whitebeard asked calmly yet with a sad face, afraid of hurting his sons.

"We do, yoi. Because I believe him, trust him, I'm still standing here, instead of rushing to find him" the phoenix said with crossed arms.

"It's because we believe him, which is why we understand this behavior is unbecoming of Izou. There must be something, Oyaji. If we're reading too much into this, then we can laugh it off. But—" Vista abruptly stopped, dreading at how the situation becomes heavier with each words.

"But, if something is happening, to our brother and we're just standing around instead of doing something for him—" Haruta bites his lower lip, suddenly lost in thought. In that moment, each presents member of Whitebeard pirates become pale except for Marco and Ace.

"And we call ourselves the crew of the strongest man in the world, yoi" that slapped the boys back into reality. Ace laughed at their faces and that break the tensions.

"Seriously, it has only been a few hours and you guys already turned to mess. Especially you, stupid Thatch!" Ace laughed while looking around at his brothers.

"Ace, this is not joking matter! Aren't you worried about Izou? Don't you feel anything—"

"Fossa!" Thatch's voice shocked them all. "It's not Ace's fault" he said strictly. The 15th commander grimaced and shook his head slowly.

"Thatch's right. Ace, it's not your fault, yet I—I'm sorry" Fossa bowed slightly, the ashes from his cigarettes fell onto the normally clean deck.

"Its okay, Fossa. We're all worried, but it's fine. It's just a vacation. Maybe Izou doesn't want to disturb us, so he only notified Oyaji. Izou doesn't normally wake us up in the dead of the night, right? It's because he's well mannered, that he never does that, right?" Ace said with a wide smile, looking from one brother to another brother, trying to ease their worries. Behind him, Marco and Oyaji smiled at how boys handle the situation.

"Yeah, fire brain's right. Izou would never disturb our sleeping pattern unless it's an emergency so this counts as normal, right?" Haruta smiled hesitantly, looking at his brothers for support and assurances.

One by one, the crew of the strongest man starts climbing back to their confidences, deciding in their mind that the 16th division is having fun somewhere. Even if their hearts are still holding to the fear and worry, they know everything will be fine. As long as they're together, the Whitebeard pirate is invincible. As long as they trust each other, there is no sea they can't overcome.

Even if there is a gnawing doubt, that something is happening, they decided they will be fine. Izou loves his brothers, after all. Marco just needs to discreetly change the course, while Thatch and Haruta gather the information they needed. And the striker will be ready anytime in case Oyaji snuff out their plan, Jozu and Vista will create the distraction for Ace.

Yeah, they will be fine.

While the pirates are consoling each other, Marco leaned onto the side of the captain's chair with crossed arms, staring at the chef with unreadable look. Next to him, unnoticed by the phoenix, Edward frowns at his son's line of sight.

Izou, wherever you are, please be safe.

No, I actually have no idea how to continue this story, because I have yet to decide if I want to make this into ThatchxIzou love story with side MarcoxAce or just make it straight family-pirate story. No, there will be no Strawhats, because Luffy is still living with Dadan and the bandits. Eh, whatelse?

No, I have yet abandon my SasuNaru and LawLu story. It's just...Law is away, you know, with the cats and all. Oh, yeah, Sabo boy. He's dead to Ace, meh. But it's fanfictiooon, but the main focus is Izou... Maybe I should write another story with Sabo boy as the main, with the One Piece Gold coming out and Sanji being stupid, I have hard time focusing. Anyway, please tell me your thought about this story or my writing, or any onepiece fun facts, yeah, I like that too.