Long summary: Things are going normally for the Whitebeard crew. Well normally enough. The crew is driving Marco crazy but what else is new. That is until on of their fishing nets traps a baby mermaid who is desperate to get back to his brothers, and his brothers are desperate to get him back as well. Now on top of everything Marco has to deal with not only caring for the injured mermaid but finding out what the three merkids were doing all alone in the middle of the ocean. ASL Mermaids with the Whitebeards.

XXX

"What's this all about?" Marco asked with a weary sigh. He loved all his brothers but sometimes they were a bit much to deal with.

Thatch grinned over at him, no doubt sensing his thoughts.

"Good going guys you got the attention of the mother bird."

"Why don't you tell the nice bird what you saw," Vista said to Haruta, who seemed to be at the center of the circle of pirates. Unlike the others whose faces were split into teasing grins Haruta looked angry. His face was flushed and he stamped his foot.

"I'm not making this up."

"Sure you're not." Thatch teased.

"I'm NOT!"

"Of course squirt." Teach said.

"What did you see Haruta?" Marco asked hoping to stop the ensuing fight.

Haruta ignored the others playful taunts to fix his attention on Marco. He was still new, their youngest member so far. Usually Whitebeards didn't take on pirates younger then eighteen but Pops had made an acceptation for him. Overzealous to prove himself Haruta took everything far too seriously. He hadn't recognized his siblings jibes as teasing but rather a criticism of his work.

"I was on guard watch this afternoon." I saw something weird in the water so I came down from the crow's nest to get a better look. But when I got to the bow it was gone. I figured it was a weird fish or something and I didn't think anything of it." He paused as Marco raised his eyebrow.

"Tell him the rest!" One of the pirates around him called and the rest broke into giggles.

"I'm getting to it," Haruta snapped but still hesitated as he looked at Marco. Like he was trying to figure out the best way to say this.

"While I was down I figured I should grab some lunch so I got some food from the mess hall and came back to the bow. So I sat there for a bit to eat and I noticed the apple was rotten so I pitched it over the railing…"

"And?" Marco pushed.

"And a little boy popped up out of nowhere, grabbed the apple and then just… disappeared."

Marco's brow furrowed as the circle burst into laughter.

"Somebody give this boy a break," Vista called. "He has been baking in the sun far too long."

Marco watched Haruta's blush grow as he yelled at them. "I know what I saw! There was a little boy in the water. He looked me right in the eyes and grabbed the apple smiled and then went back under. So I went for help but none of this lot believed me."

"Of course we didn't, that's ridiculous. We are in the middle of nowhere. There's not another island for hundreds of miles. And we haven't seen another ship in days. How on earth could there be a kid in the water. And even if there was where is he now huh? Say that there really is a tyke swimming around under the ship, he has to have come up to breath by now. There's nothing but ocean for miles we would have seen him. But nope no boy, no apple and no common sense apparently."

The crew erupted into more laughter and Haruta glared. "I know what I saw."

Marco rubbed his temple. It was time to relieve Haruta. His shift had been a long one.

"Don't you guys have somewhere else to be?" Marco asked the crew.

"Nowhere that's less entertaining than this."

"I beg to differ," Marco told them as the crowed thinned, going back to their various duties, still laughing as they did.

Only Thatch stayed, sitting on the railing contently. Marco gave him a look which he returned with a smile.

"So what now Marco?" He asked. "As the superior it's your job to deal with these things when they are reported to you. So what are you going to do about the boy in the ocean? Should we get a search party out?"

Marco knew his friend wasn't mocking him, well he was a little. He wouldn't be Thatch if he didn't. But he was really asking. It would be unwise to ignore an eyewitness account regardless of how unlikely it was.

Marco turned back to Haruta whose face was tomato red at this point. "I know what I saw!"

"Get some sleep," Marco told him. "That's enough for today."

"I'm not making this up!" He cried.

"I know." Marco agreed. "But you need a break. I'll look into it for now."

Haruta sighed in relief. Glad someone was willing to listen to him.

"What color was the hair?" Marco asked catching the younger pirate by surprise.

"Did the boy have golden hair? Sort of wavy."

Haruta looked surprised. "No? It was black and strait."

Well that wasn't what he expected. "Get some rest kid." Marco told him as he turned away. Thatch followed after him, after making Haruta promise to go get some real food before turning in.

"So you think he's for real then?" He asked his fried and Marco nodded pausing at the bow. "Haruta isn't the lying type." He took his work too seriously for that. "Besides I got a report two days ago saying the same thing. One of the night watches saw a little blondie off the bow, he followed us for a little ways. When the night watchman called out to him he went back under the water. And he never came back up.

"Way to bury the lead." Thatch said glancing out at the open ocean. "So you're saying there are not one but two kids swimming around out there? How is that even possible?"

Marco didn't know. But he intended to find out.

"Tell the night lookout not to bother." Marco told Thatch. He was going to get to the bottom of this.

XXX

"So how is it going?" Thatch asked Marco who was sitting on the railing with a bored expression of his face.

The sun had set hours ago and the ocean was dark. Illuminated only by the ships light and the intense glare of the moon that reflected on the water's surface.

"No sightings of little kids if that's what you mean." Marco told him not bothering to look up as Thatch sat down beside him. "Excluding you I mean."

"Well this might help." Thatch said hefting a bag of apples onto the railing besides him. "Apparently these are hungry boys who like apples."

He threw on into the water where it bobbed innocently in place.

"You know the ship is moving pretty fast?" Thatch asked after a few minutes.

He threw another apple in.

"So?"

"So that means that they have been following us for at least two days. What kid do you know of that can keep up with a ship?"

"Probably any kid that lives in water." Marco told him.

Thatch raised his arm to throw a third one but stopped. "Where did the first apple go?"

Sure enough there was only one apple bobbing in the water. The other one was gone. Thatch threw it into the water anyways as they held their breathes. After a few minutes a tiny hand came up and snatched the furthest apple dragging it under the surface. The last one disappeared the same way not a second later. It happened so quickly they could have easily missed it if they weren't careful.

"My god…" Thatch said as he tossed another round down. They both waited but the apples remained there. The little hand was gone. Perhaps Thatch's voice had scared it, perhaps something else. After a few hours, and many more apples none of which were eaten the two men gave up.

"What are we going to do?" Thatch asked as they made their way to the watch nest.

"There isn't much we can do," Marco said. "We could stop but there's not much point if it's already following us."

"Not an it, he." Thatch said. "Maybe multiple he's."

In the mourning they asked Namur to take a look around the area and although he grumbled he did. But after searching for half the day he came up with nothing. There was no little boy in the water. Nothing but Empty Ocean for miles and miles. Still they knew what they saw, or rather didn't see.

Nearly two days went by without a sighting and Marco was beginning to give up on getting to the bottom of this. After yet another late night watch with Thatch and

Thatch's apples he was awakened far too early by a harsh knocking on his door.

"What is it Haruta?" He answered.

The boy was excited about something, he was so fidgety he could barely stand still.

"I saw it again!" He was practically glowing in excitement. Off the back of the ship. I think there are two of them.

That woke Marco up as he let Haruta pull him down the maze of corridors and topside where he made his way to the back of the ship. Izo was already there, his dark eyes fixed firmly near the horizon.

"Where did they go?"

"They disappeared five minutes ago. They were in a pair. I don't know how long they have been following us but they sure do keep their distance."

So there were two of them.

"A blondie and a black haired one?"

Izo nodded as the three of them waited impatiently, leaning against the rail. Sure enough about half an hour later two heads once again popped out of the water; one blonde and one black. They were far away, a good hundred meters or so. But Marco met their eyes evenly and in one jump he took off. His phoenix wings erupted and he sped through the sky towards the two boys.

The second he moved the blond one disappeared, back under the water. But the black haired boy stood his ground. He had sunken a few centimeters back into the water, so the surface just about reached his nose. But his eyes were practically glowing with anger.

Marco hovered in front of him, his feet nearly touching the surface, something he had to mindful of. The two locked eyes and the little boy scowled and Marco swore he heard a loud growl. But before he had the chance to say anything there was a swish of water and the boy was gone.

Neither boy resurfaced again, despite them waiting for hours. But Marco was certain they were still following the ship. Thatch was sure as well and made sure to throw over some apples for them.

"So why are they following us?" Thatch asked as he finished preparing that night's dinner.

"Who knows?" Marco said as he watched his friend slice vegetables with precision. "They must have seen ships before." It wasn't uncommon for pirates and the navy to travel in this strait. Thatch paused in the chopping as he fingered a carrot thoughtfully. "Maybe it's the food. We dump a lot of the leftovers and stuff that's gone bad over the side. Plus our nets attract lots of fish. They might be following us for food." They sure ate the apples quickly enough.

Marco nodded. That made sense. "A better question is what are they? And where are their parents? Or at least other adults." They looked far too young to be out here by themselves. If it had been a full grown man swimming around they would have found that extremely odd. But chances were they would have moved on if it was apparent he didn't need help. But it was hard to ignore two unattended children all on their own.

"Whatever it is we will get to the bottom of it," Thatch promised and Marco knew he meant it. He had a soft spot for children the likes of which was rarely seen in pirates.

"Until then will you go check with the fishermen to see how much they caught today? I needed the numbers an hour ago."

As the head cook Thatch had responsibilities to look after his siblings much like Marco. The man dipped his head heading over to the back deck to see what the holdup was.

The sun was rapidly setting and the usually busy deck had become more subdued. The only ones on the deck at this time where the fishermen or those on guard duty. The rest of the crew was taking a break before dinner. No doubt dinner was going to be late tonight.

When Marco made it down to where the fishing nets were he was surprised to see five of the large fish nets already on deck, lying off to the side completely forgotten. All the fishermen's attention was fixed on the sixth net which was currently halfway out of the water.

"What's taking them so long?" He asked the nearest crew member.

He pointed to the sixth net where the group of fishermen were all huddled around trying to pull it up to little avail.

"No clue?" It must have gotten caught on something. It won't budge. We have been pulling it up inch by inch for nearly two hours. It's exhausting. We better have caught a ton of fish or I'm going to be pissed.

Marco remained silent as he watched them pull the fish net out of the water. If nothing else the fishermen were a tenacious bunch. They were determined to bring the hull onboard even if it broke every one of their backs. When they managed to pull it a third out of the water something changed. Like a switch being flipped whatever was holding the net back stopped and suddenly it was flying up into the air over the ship.

The crew cheered loudly but Marco ignored them instead to stare at the net. Was it his imagination or was there something red in it. From his spot underneath it looked like a red tail, about the size of a dolphins.

He heard a faint whimper missed by the others that snapped him into action.

"Lower it!"

"What?"

"Now!" He commanded crossing the deck to stand beside the lever system which had a small crowd around it .

"Aye aye," One of them said as the net came crashing to the deck. Marco stopped it a few feet before it could hit the wood.

"What the hell?" The lead fishermen asked as the others fell silent.

Unlike the other nets that were brimming with silver fish this one had very few. In lieu of dinner it held a little boy… or at least half of one. Instead of legs he had a bright red tail.

The crew pressed closer for a better look. All of them shocked silent.

"Is that… a mermaid?"

"It appears so," Marco said as he stepped closer keeping a careful eye on the little boys face. Although he was dripping with water it was easy to tell he had been crying. His bottom lip was trembling and his eyes were red. When Marco reached out a hand he let out a whimper.

"What do we do?"

Not too good in a crisis were they?

"Let him down that's what," Marco directed as they finished lowering it to the deck, much more carefully this time.

"What the hell is a mermaid doing all the way out here?" One of the men asked as they set about unloading the net.

That was a good question. It was extremely rare to see a mermaid outside of Fisherman's island. It was even rarer to see one this young and it was unheard of to see a baby Merfry outside of the Grandline. Most people in these parts thought them myths. Only the travelers knew better.

Marco sighed as he heard another sniff.

The men untied the net letting the fish flop freely onto the deck but the little boy didn't move. He lay stiff as the dead, tangled up in the net.

"Are you okay little one?" Marco asked cautiously as he carefully stepped onto the laid out net avoiding the fish and seaweed ensnared in its tangles. He asked the fishermen to give him their knife which they did. He dropped to his knees besides the kid pretending not to hear the desperate sniffles.

By this time word had begun to spread and a large crowd was forming around them full of crew members wanting to see a Merfry. Marco wished they wouldn't. The little guy was already terrified.

"Don't worry." He promised as he began to cut the net to free the boy. "We are going to get you out of here. How long he had been caught was anyone's guess.

Despite the fishermen's protest he cut the net pulling it off the kid and getting a better look at him as he did so. He was small and trembling hard. He had black hair and big dark eyes that looked at Marco like he was the devil incarnate. There were three grooves on each side of his neck that served as gills and his tail was a vibrant shade of red like a tropical reef fish.

While majestic in water the tail was dead weight on land and did little more than twitch as Marco ran his hands over it. The boy whimpered at the touch but he still didn't move. This was not the same boy from this morning. No, this was the tiny one who Haruta must have seen. The apple eater.

"What's wrong?" Marco questioned when the boy still did not move. He rested his hand on his tiny arm and the kid let out a whimper but didn't try to move away. It was then he noticed the dull red water around them. Slowly turning a brighter shade every minute.

"Call a doctor!" He shouted to the crew before turning his attention back to the kid who had jumped when he raised his voice.

"We aren't going to hurt you." He promised gently running his hands over him looking for an injury. It wasn't that hard to find. Near the base of his tail there was a large hook embedded all the way through. Marco winced. That must be painful.

It was a shark hook, to catch the sharks that tried to feed on the fish in the nets. It was designed to sink deeper the more they struggled and like all hooks it was impossible to dislodge once the barb was inside. He felt a stab of sympathy for the kid seeing the damage the hook had done to his little tail. He must have been struggling really hard for that kind of wound. There was no way he could dislodge this himself. This should be handled by a skilled doctor.

Marco cut the hook out of the net. Forget the doctor, he should take the kid there himself now.

But the second he realized he was free the little Merfry turned himself over with a powerful flap of his tail only digging the hook in deeper. Despite Marco's warnings he tried to crawl away, digging his fingernails into the wood as he crawled towards the railing. No way was Marco letting him go back in to the water bleeding like this. He would be dead within the week.

"We're not going to hurt you," he promised as he bent down besides the kid picking him up in one steady move. The tail was slimy in his hands but the skin felt surprisingly human.

As he was picked up the boy let out a terrified squeak and began to thrash around trying to free himself. Marco wondered if he even knew how to talk for how silent he was.

He turned to face the crew who were watching him like he was the most interesting thing that happened all day.

"Why is there a baby mermaid here?" Someone called.

"Guys I know you're curious but your scaring him." If the little fry's eyes got any bigger they would pop out of his head. He looked beyond terrified. "Go back to whatever you were doing, I promise I will find out and tell you about it later."

The crew grumbled but more or less did what they were told.

"And someone tell Oyaji!"

Holding the little guy to his chest Marco made his way through the crew members and below deck where he met the doctor rushing to help about halfway. They walked back to the hospital wing together. The doctor was so excited about the prospect of working on a mermaid it was almost embarrassing.

A small crowd gathered outside the door and Marco purposefully closed it behind them hoping the crew would get the message.

When Marco put him down on one of the beds he began to shake harder looking around the white room in sheer terror.

As the doctor pulled on his gloves he tried to roll off the bed but they stopped him.

"Would you hold him down?"

Marco agreed feeling bad as the little guy started whimpering.

"Can you talk?" The doctor asked as he felt around the wound.

The little boy nodded with a sniff.

"Why don't you tell us your name?"

A tear ran down his now dry cheek and he shook his head shifting under Marcos hands.

"Can you pull the hook out?" Marco asked having no idea how to comfort the kid.

"Not like this. It's all the way in and the surrounding skin was damaged. We will have to cut the end off and pull it all the way though."

The kid definitely understood that as his whimpers rose in volume and he stared to cry louder. Oops. The doctor and Marco shared an apologetic look. He tried to question the kid but he didn't answer a single one so the doctor gave up and focused on his work.

He gently cleaned the surrounding blood away and applied some topical antithetic to the area. From there he could cut off the end of the hook and it pull it out by its head.

"What do we do with him?" Marco asked as he pet the kid's hair reassuringly as the other man began to stitch up the wound.

"Well he's not going back into the water like this. His wound will reopen and he will bleed out. That's what Marco suspected.

"Still we can't just take off. There are other little ones out there. At least two, they have been following us for miles."

From the corner of his eye Marco noticed the kid sit up at that.

"We can't just leave them if they are on their own."

The doctor looked surprised at that. "Where is their pod?" Even more then human's mermaids were social creatures. They rarely traveled alone and preferred small groups of their family or friends. Although when they were still just Merfry they stuck close to their parents who were fiercely protective of them. Few surface dwellers had ever seen a Merfry or even an adolescent one because of how cautious the entire race was with their younglings. Unless you were in Fisherman's island and trusted enough by the community the kids were kept hidden away until at least they were old enough to fend for themselves. Which in the case of this little guy was many years away.

"Well until we get some answers we can't leave and until he heals we can't let him back into the ocean. There's no choice but to ask Oyaji to stall the boat. Marco agreed as he watched the doctor bandage the tail in waterproof bandages.

"What do we do with him until then?"

The doctor shrugged. He can't stay here forever. And he hasn't learned to move on land very well.

"I guess we can put him in the big bath for now. It had just been cleaned this morning, as it was every morning. And it was big enough the kid could swim around without straining himself too much. Plus Marco was sure that he would feel much better if he was back in water. He looked so scared and small here. Sure the crew would grumble a bit but there were other baths they could use.

Marco helped the kid sit up as he poked the bandages around his tail.

"Don't mess with that." The doctor told him and he stiffened.

"We are going to put you in some water okay?" He doubted the mermaid knew what a bath was and he didn't bother explaining. With the doctors help they picked him up again and made their way through the crowded halls earning some strange looks.

"I don't think he likes us very much." The doctor said and Marco had to agree.

"Well why would he? We trapped him in a net where he got hurt and then took him away from his friends." He felt the boy move his tail in agreement. His gills were less prominent now that they had dried. They looked more like scars. Without the tail he could easily pass for a human.

"We will have to lock him in," Marco said feeling bad when the little kid stiffened as they carried him into the bathroom. This early in the day it was empty.

"Not like he would get very far."

Far enough. Marco thought. He was pretty determined even if he had to drag himself all the way back to the bow he would.

The baths were a large network of pools walled off by rocks that made it feel like a hot spring rather than a bathroom. There was even a waterfall in the middle and bamboo surrounding it giving the bathers privacy. Marco figured the kid would be happy here for the minute.

They began to lower him into the bath but before they were halfway down he wiggled out of their hands and disappeared into the water with a loud splash.

"Is he going to be all right?" Marco asked when he did not resurface.

"He is just scared. I doubt we will see him again if he can help it. Maybe we should have given more thought to how we are going to get him out."

That was going to be an ordeal for sure. He doubted anyone but Namur was going to be able to catch a mermaid their element. And they had already used their favors with Namur for the month for how long he spent looking for the boys.

"You go talk to Oyaji and I will make sure everyone steers clear of here for the time being."

Marco agreed giving the bath one last glance before they left, shutting the door and locking it behind them.

XXX

"Well this certainly is unexpected." Oyaji said with a laugh as he took another gulp of 'water'.

"No kidding."

"And you say there are others?"

"At least two, both still just Fry's. We think they are probably his pod."

"I guess we don't have much of a choice then, we will dock here until we can catch the other two brats or decide to release the little guy." Whitebeard sounded more amused then bothered by this. He was always the sort of guy who liked to be amused more then he liked being annoyed.

"Will he be okay in the baths?"

"We lowered the temperature and Thatch is going to feed him. He should be okay. At least we will know he is alive if the food keep disappearing."

Pops laughed at that. "I bet Thatch is going to love this."

"He does love kids."

This was going to be an interesting week Marco thought as he looked out at the sea expecting to see the other two boys bobbing ahead of the boat. But they weren't there.

XXX

So before you question what a full grown twenty year old is doing writing mermaid fics like this I would like to defend myself by saying I was drawing chibi ASL as mermaids in a teapot and it was taking FOREVER. So I decided I might as well make a story to go along with it while I was at it. Also I'm out of work, done with classes and really bored so here you go. And for the record this is going to be a little story with three or five chapters at most. It's just going to be about ASL as mermaids meeting the Whitebeard pirates because I don't know if this had been done yet which is a shame because there are a million ASL meets WB stories out there and they are all amazing. In this version Luffy never met Shanks so he doesn't have the scar, the hat or the devil fruit yet.

Fun fact I learned about fish while writing this. Fry's are what they call baby fish who have hatched and can feed themselves but don't have their scales or working fins. Fingerlings are baby fish with scales and functional fins but still not very big. Adolescent fish are fish who are nearing maturity but still not adults. Because I just made myself the leading authority on mermaids a hatchling is a baby mermaid 0-5 years old and hardly bigger than a stuffed animal. Their parents have to keep then in a special shallow pool without currents. A Merfry is about 6-10 years olds and can swim out in the open but don't have their adult scales or fins yet. A fingerling is 11-13 and much faster. Around this age their baby scales start molting and get replaced by adult scales which are both more durable and flashier. Adolescents are fourteen years and older and have their complete set of adult scales and full sized fins with a pronounced dorsal fin.

Anyway thanks for reading! I will post the next chapter hopefully tomorrow and you will get to see Ace and Sabo's point of view as they look for Luffy. Anyway thanks or reading