Part 2 - Deja Vu, To You.

Summary: Thatch and denial continue to hold hands.

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'Ok' Thatch thought to himself, 'Just a coincidence'.

There couldn't really be anything to this luck thing, it was just because Ace had mentioned it right before the pan had taken a tumble. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, 'There's too much to do today to get caught up in all that crazy!'.

Breakfast continued with no other strange events, his brothers all laughing and forgetting any table manners they may once have had as they scarfed down food and ran off to their stations for the morning.

"Hey, Thatch". He heard Marco call him over to the door of the dining hall. The look on Marco's face as he sauntered over made Thatch's eye twitch. "Nice accessory there, it suits you."

Thatch just sniffed, "You wish you could pull this off as well as me," as he turned back and forth to model the greenery on his chef's jacket. "But seriously it's just for today, for Ace's sake. You should have seen the look on his face when he saw it! It's not like this thing will even last a full day on a busy pirate ship. It's a leaf!".

Marco just raised an eyebrow and shrugged, "Whatever you say, yoi." Not everyone knew Marco as well as Thatch did, but he could tell that Marco was suppressing a smile from the twinkle in his eye!

"Just remember," Marco's deadpan voice floated through the hallway as he sauntered off, "Funny things tend to happen around Ace, luck or no. Don't be too surprised if today is an interesting day…".

"Finally!" Thatch and his crew of servers had finished breakfast cleanup and were all dispersing, slapping each other on the back and moving to take a break before snack prep. He wiped down the last knife and went to place it in the block when a clanging sound rang out from the main deck.

"Sail ahoy!" came the shout down the stairs as thundering footsteps raced to man their stations. Thatch had just enough time to belt on his sword from its usual resting place beside his prep counter before heading up to check out the scene. The potential enemy ship was just coming into view from the quarterdeck as he swept into the circle of his brothers gathering around Pops, waiting for his order. It would be nice to get some exercise and thrash some idiot crew trying to mess with them.

Whitebeard held the spyglass to his eye and a loud "Gurararara!" thundered out as he swung his gaze over the approaching ship.

Marco was the first to speak up. "What is it Pops? Time for some action?"

"My sons, prepare for battle!" Whitebeard turned to heft his naginata in his hand, "We've had rumblings of a challenge and it seems someone has actually stepped up."

Haruta snorted, "Not much of a challenge. It's the Blue Fox Pirates, middling level at best but they've been nibbling at the edges of our territory. Seems like they've finally decided to try their luck."

Thatch couldn't help but wince at that word even as he turned to head across the deck. No such thing as luck, and this would nicely prove that. 'There's nothing lucky about a jumped up crew of pretenders trying to mess with Pops…' he thought to himself, 'maybe this will convince Ace to let this whole clover thing go after today'. He'd make a special treat to head off Ace's inevitable rant about the consequences of ignoring the "luck rules".

The battle, if you could even call it that, ended almost before it began. Thatch himself didn't have a scratch, though he told himself that that was normal for a battle with a crew on this level. It wasn't luck! It was skill, dammit! He and Haruta had flipped a coin to see who would get to lead the charge and he had won, Haruta side-eyeing his jacket the whole time.

"Don't even say it!" Thatch shouted and clapped his hands over his ears. Haruta had just smirked, "Whatever you say, Thatch."

He finished cleaning his sword and and moved to scout out below-deck. It was always interesting to see what kind of loot the challengers brought with them. It was his turn for first pick, since he had lead the charge. Time for some treasure-hunting!

Humming to himself, he jogged through the corridors. One Haki-assisted sweep of the ship had already proven that there were no stray weaklings waiting with an ambush and in no time he had reached what had to be the treasure room. The wooden door criss-crossed with iron and a huge padlock had rather given it away. Shaking his head at the uncreative security measures, he bent to examine the padlock. Tugging on it and huffing, he was about to draw his sword and slice his way through when the padlock clicked and fell open, letting the door swing in.

"Ok, that was weird." Thatch spoke into the darkness of the open treasure room. "This crew is incompetent…" He couldn't help complaining about the sheer lack of skill. It was insulting! A crew that couldn't even lock it's treasury up correctly with basic safeguards, trying to beat Pops? Ridiculous!

"Looks like the usual spread", he sighed to himself and began to open chests to get a gauge on their contents. Coins, jewelry, the occasional bolt of fine cloth and several drawers of maps, all things a pirate crew would value, he'd seen it all before. 'I'll pick up some fun ingredients with my share, maybe do a little experimenting with those food dyes from South blue.'

Hearing his brothers making their way down the hall shouting, still riding high from the battle, he turned to join them and his foot skidded into a little box set beside a large bag of coins. A glint of metal caught his eye, an intricate lock set into a carved wooden surface and he bent to pick it up.

"What have we here?". Feeling the ridges of the carvings dig into his hand from the weight of the box, he quickly assessed the lock. It seemed simple enough and it would be a shame to mess up the pretty container. He went for his lockpicks, hidden in his hair, but a sharp stab to his chest made him drop them to the floor. He slapped his hand to his chest and caught the pin from the clover as it was about to fall off his jacket. "Lucky my butt! That thing just stabbed me!" Grumbling, he tucked the clover into his breast pocket and went for his lockpicks again but was interrupted.

"Thatch!" Haruta slammed open the door, "Hey Thatch, it's time to get moving. Oh, cool box!".

"Yeah, I was just gonna try to open it so we could see what's inside. Bet it's something interesting." Thatch shuffled the box under his arm and grabbed a bag of coins. "I guess it can wait though…"

Haruta laughed at him, "Sorry to interrupt then! You just want to show off something sparkly." Hefting a chest on his back, he turned to follow Thatch.

"I'm offended by your insinuation! Besides what's wrong with a little bragging, it was a good find. And it might not be sparkly, it could be an expensive vintage or juicy world-government blackmail!". Thatch patted the little box at his side as they passed , "I was going to show you guys, but now I think you'll all have to wait until we finish with the cleanup. Where's Ace?"

Haruto side-eyed him and smirked, "Why, were you going to show him your lucky find? He was up with Teach dealing with the stragglers last I saw him. By now they might have gone back to the ship."

Exasperated, Thatch couldn't help glaring at Haruta, "We'll tell Ace no such thing. All of you can wait until the party tonight, after I've had the chance to take a look at it. It might not even be anything special considering the level of these guys. Probably just a fancy bit of nonsense, but I like the box anyway. Maybe I'll keep that clover in it after today to make it up to Ace when I tell him that this luck thing is still nonsense."

Thatch and Haruta made their way back to the railing where the two ships were lashed together, rocking on the waves side-by-side. Suddenly he lurched to a stop, almost doubling over as strange sensation swept up his spine, his vision doubling as his eyes swept over the enemy pirate ship for the last time. His gaze lingered over the rigging attached to the rail, squinting to pick out details as the sun dipped below the horizon. He could see Haruta staring at him. "Sorry, just had the weirdest feeling, like deja vu."

Haruta shrugged, "Sure, we've done this kinda thing a thousand times. This time's no different."

"Sure," Thatch agreed slowly as they jumped over the rail. He held up the box in the dying light, safe on home planking once again, "just a normal day…".

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A/N:

Reality- You just dodged a bullet, but watch out for that cannonball.

Thatch claps hands over ears- Lalalala, can't hear you!

-It only takes a couple of seconds difference to change the course of someone's life- Yes, this has grown a tiny plot! Comment if you have guesses about what exactly is happening here, I'd love to chat with you guys. And don't worry, Ace will reappear in the next chapter, he's had his own thing going on while all of this was going down.

I'm so sorry for the delay on this chapter. Between RL last year and a lack of inspiration, it's been floundering. Thanks to A Force of Nature- my John Wick fic, I'm back writing again. Also, I'm attending ConFab and I'm really excited to talk fanfic all weekend long in September. Inspiration! Hope you guys enjoyed this one and hopefully the next will be soon to finish up this 3 part arc.