OP Delulu Land

Not only that, but the general conditions of Lafftale were worse than you remembered. Maybe it was because you became accustomed to a life of luxury, but the low quality of life on Lafftale was hard to reaccustom yourself to. Like right now, your throat was dry, but you wouldn’t be able to drink a cup of water until it was your allocated time. The lights were low, and the heating was almost nonexistent. The threadbare clothes you wore were soft against your skin after so many years of constant use, which was especially pleasant since your bruises and scrapes from the suit hadn’t healed yet. Even so, the clothes weren’t doing enough to keep you warm so you had a blanket wrapped around your shoulders. You enjoyed the feeling of cloth, but couldn’t help but yearn for your youngling suit that had kept you warm and protected. Marco would have tutted over you, fretting over any ailments you had. He would have kept you warm, helping you immediately. But Marco wasn’t on Lafftale, and you’d never see him again. Why did that thought bring a pang of sadness to your heart?

Your mind was brought back to the present by Sol taking a shuddering breath, making you curl your fingers into her palm. When your pod had finally made it back to Lafftale, you had sent off the code indicating you were human. Thankfully, the ponyglyph contained the code information, so you hadn’t been decimated when you showed up. The colony had no defense if someone shot at the base, but they had been left one hell of an offense by Joy Boy, just in case. You’d landed your pod and run straight to your sister, the thought of saving her the only thing on your mind. You had triumphantly presented the cure for Oro’s Virus, and had given Sol the very first dose. 

But since then, there hadn’t been any change in her since you had administered the medicine you’d taken from Marco’s lab. At first you’d been so hopeful, monitoring Sol around the clock to try to see minute changes. But hour after hour, her symptoms didn’t get any better. Not only that, it was soon clear that Sol was continuing to deteriorate. You stroked her hand as she slept on the thin, worn mattress, trying to keep from waking her. As your eyes looked over her form, you wished for the millionth time that you had been able to bring Marco’s bed with you. At least then she could die in comfort. You heaved a great sigh, pulling Marco’s blanket up over Sol’s sleeping shoulders. All that work for Sol to still die slowly and in great pain.

You thought that coming back from space with vaccines, food, and supplies would solve all your problems. But that hadn’t been the case. Far from it, it turned out. Everyone was grateful for the food and supplies, but there was turmoil burbling up from various factions. Some people were pleased you’d made your way back, but others were pissed that you’d gone into space at all. People had been taking shifts by the weapon stock, waiting to see if you’d been followed. You tried to assure everyone that you had lost the pirates, that there was no way for you to be followed, but Terra and Hazel weren’t convinced. Even Fern wasn’t on your side, and he was usually fairly reasonable.

“How is she?” Terra said in a clipped tone, waiting for you outside Sol’s room. Since so many people had died, there was no shortage of rooms any longer. You closed your eyes, you didn’t want to talk to Terra right now. She wasn’t a bad person, in fact you generally liked her, but she had been abrasive to you since you had come back.

“The same,” you replied, unwilling to admit that Sol was worse.

“She isn’t. I heard her moaning and wheezing,” Terra said quietly.Terra was tough, but not brutal. She didn’t need to tell you that once the virus attacked Sol’s nervous system, it was all over. Sol’s paralysis was now nearing her brain stem, the final stage before she died of Oro’s Virus.

“I fed her some food earlier, she liked it. She’s still got some time left,” you insisted, despite the growing panic in your chest. To your delight, Sol had loved the food you brought from Thatch’s kitchen, especially liking the meat stew that he had made. She thanked you over and over again, eating every single drop on the plate. And unlike what you’d been taught on the Moby, here everyone did lick their plates clean.  Everyone had reveled in the new dishes, trying to make it last as long as possible. You abstained and ate the bland Lafftale grown food - you already had your experiences on the Moby.

Your eyes skimmed over Sol, your panic growing as you quietly left her room. You slid the door shut behind you, hoping that her rest was easy. You spent every one of Sol’s waking moments together, but you tried to give her space when she was asleep. Leaning back against the wall, you took a deep breath and sighed. Why hadn’t the medicine worked?

“I wish – do you think I should go back to Mar- er, the Whitebeard Pirates and get more medicine–” you said aloud, trying to process what to do next. You cringed as the words left your mouth. If there was one person who you shouldn’t have said that around, it was Terra.

“No. Abso-fucking-lutely not,” Terra snapped, pushing you lightly against the wall. You scowled at her and took a step forward. Since your time with the Whitebeard Pirates, you’d become way less timid – you weren’t going to take being shoved around like you would have months prior. You hadn’t even meant anything by it, you were just processing.

“Fuck off, I’m not in the mood –” you grunted, before Terra got in your face, closing the gap between you. Oh shit, you thought, you forgot what Terra was like. Yes, you were more aggressive, but Terra had a few screws loose. Whatever had happened to her in her past had made her volatile and aggressive when she wanted to be. She wouldn’t hurt you, but Terra wasn’t going to back down either. 

“Don’t you fucking dare even talk about going back into space,” Terra hissed at you. “The stunt you pulled was already incredibly dangerous. I’m surprised you made it back in one piece. I assumed you were dead the moment we realized you were gone,” she tossed at you. You winced from the harshness of her words. Had Sol felt that way too?

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for the supplies and the good food. Haven’t had anything like that since I got here. Even so, no one’s going back out there,” she continued, poking you hard in the chest on your still sore skin.

“And as you know, once humans are at Lafftale, they do not leave. Especially not back to notorious pirates who would sell you on sight as a sex pet,” she hissed. You rolled your eyes – you had been born on Lafftale, you knew the rules. You weren’t sure exactly where Terra was from but you were perfectly aware of the protocols. And besides, the Whitebeard pirates wouldn’t sell you, you thought to yourself. As for the sex pet part, well…

“I know, but –” Even with the way Marco treated you, you couldn’t bear to watch your sister die in front of you. You’d gladly take eternity as Marco’s pet if it meant that Sol would get to live.

“But nothing! Look, I’m sorry that Sol is dying, I really am. I love the girl, and I truly wish things were different. But they’re not, and the only way we can be safe is if we stay away from anyone and everyone before somehow making our way back to Eurt –” Terra began launching into her speech again about how humans needed to be hidden to be safe. You pursed your lips — you hadn’t told anyone on Lafftale that Eurt had been destroyed. It hadn’t quite come up yet, and you didn’t know how to broach the subject. Everyone still held Eurt as a paradise waiting for them and you didn’t have the heart to tell them otherwise. The truth would eventually come out, but for now you held your tongue.

“It wasn’t that bad with Mar— with the pirates. And I got away, didn’t I?” you protested, shifting the conversation back to your experiences. The other humans had tried to get a lot of information out of you about your experiences but you’d been pretty tight lipped. There was infinite time to talk about all of that, but for now you needed space to process. You’d be able to talk about it all one day, but not while you were so concerned with Sol. Everything would come out eventually, but for now you’d let them continue to live in ignorant bliss.

“Yeah, you got away. That part doesn't surprise me. Other species always underestimate us, think we're dumb animals that can't think," Terra agreed, tapping her cheek with a small finger.

"But really? Are you really saying it wasn’t that bad? No one forced you to do anything you didn’t want to?” Terra asked.  You opened your mouth but no words came out. You swallowed thickly, pushing the hollow words out.

“I — it wasn’t like that,” you protested weakly. Terra’s face broke into a condescending smile. You wanted to lie and say that nothing like that happened, but something in you wouldn’t allow it.

“Oh, no. I’m sure it wasn’t like that,” she said sarcastically. “So, no one made you their pet? You didn’t have to call anyone master? No one put you in clothes you didn’t like or put things in you that you didn’t want? You had complete autonomy? They treated you like a full being, with a mind and will of your own?”

“I —”

“Tell me honestly — if you say no, I’ll believe you and let it go,” Terra said, giving her head a small nod before continuing. You almost felt like you were being interrogated by Izou, but with slightly more menace. “But I don’t think I’m wrong. Were you forced to have sex against your will?” she continued, her wild eyes boring into your own as she cut to the heart of the matter. Memories of the examination flashed in your mind, of the time you were with Izou, of the time Marco put the trainer in you…it had happened. It had. It had. But…but….the time with Marco on Kyuka and in his room and him swooping in to save you and walking together and talking and laughing…and…your head spun with the warring images of Marco as your tormentor and as your lover.

“Stop it!” you yelled, pushing her away from you to stomp down the barely lit hallway towards your own room. “You don’t know what it was like!” you said, spinning around momentarily. Terra followed you closely, her shorter frame easily able to keep up with your longer strides. 

“I do, Luna! I do know what it was like! I came from that! Do you think you're the only person this happened to? Tell me this –” Terra spat as she grabbed you by the arm. She pulled your shirt down by the collar, revealing the scar on your shoulder where you’d gouged out the tracker.

“Did you want a tracker in your body? Or was that not so bad too?” she yelled, tossing your arm away like it burned her. Your mouth hung open in shock as you covered yourself back up, opening the door to your room and taking a step inside.

“You know how I know? I have a scar like that too!” Terra said with a manic laugh, pushing down her own shirt to reveal a similar scar close to her neck. “So don’t fucking tell me that anyone is going back out there! I’ll kill you myself before I’d let that happen! I’d rather die in this shit hole as a free woman than be anyone’s pet ever again! Maybe you liked that disgusting shit, but –”

You couldn’t take any more.

You slammed the door in her face.

You sank down onto the cold tile floor, the room spinning as you closed your eyes. Everything was closing in, you felt the urge to scream bubbling up within you. You scratched at your throat, your mind roiling with confusion. Almost unconsciously, your eyes sought the sole source of color adorning your room — the teal blue feather.

Sol was dying. Everyone was dying. Marco couldn’t find you. You couldn’t go back to Marco.

What were you going to do?

Marco POV

Marco hadn’t slept since you made your successful escape. As a Phoenix, he didn’t need as much sleep as others, but he still needed some. But whenever he laid down in his bed, (with a new pillow and blanket, both missing your scent), he was too restless to fall asleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw you – your smile, you sticking out your tongue in concentration, the top of your head as he kissed you before you left him forever. Memories of you were everywhere, and most of all in his room. 

Not only that, but it seemed like every time he was back in his room, an alert went off notifying the ship that another crew was attacking. None of the crews were strong enough to cause any real issues, but the sheer number was annoying. Izou and Marco had wanted to debrief all the Commanders after losing you, but there hadn’t been a time when everyone was available to meet since you’d told the universe of your existence. It seemed like a new crew was attacking every 15 minutes, no matter where they flew to. You had created quite the problem for the ship, and it wasn’t abating. He hadn’t even told Pops yet, but now might be the time.

After getting out of bed, Marco dragged his feet on his way to see Pops after yet another sleepless shift. He still needed to send a message to everyone letting them know what happened out by the ponyglyph. Marco didn’t think there’d be another chance to ever see you again, but just in case, everyone needed to know about the ponyglyphs being in human. He really should have done it by now but frankly, he was too upset. Marco wasn’t embarrassed or ashamed – well, he was, but that wasn’t the primary reason. No, you had bested them, using your meager resources to truly escape them. You had won, and it was their own fault for underestimating you. Truthfully Marco was a touch proud of you for escaping. Now the crew would see how smart, how cunning, how courageous you really were. You had proved yourself worthy of being a Whitebeard pirate, not that you'd get the chance to be one.

No, the real reason Marco hadn’t informed everyone was that admitting to others that you were gone would be the final goodbye. Until he had to say it out loud, he could delude himself into pretending that you weren’t really, truly gone. That maybe there was some hope of finding you again, of seeing your sunny smile and hearing your lovely voice. Until Marco made the announcement, he could live in denial for a little while longer. Marco ran his hand over his face, trying to steady himself before his talk with Pops. He felt more tired than he had in ages, his mind constantly thinking the same few thoughts again and again.

And it wasn’t just losing you that was costing Marco sleep. Marco couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when you found out that the medicine you took wasn’t real. Sure, some of the minor medications and ointments would work but the ones you wanted, the ones you’d gone to space for from the safety of your colony – wouldn’t do anything for the sick humans. Marco hadn’t thought you would actually get away, he assumed he would be with you the entire time and be able to heal the sick humans and nurse them back to health. You were going to be fine, you were immunized against everything Marco could think of. But whoever you had gone into space to save was going to continue getting sicker until they died. And as a doctor, that was something that kept Marco awake.

But even more than losing you and the thought of the humans slowly and painfully dying in some remote location, what kept Marco tossing and turning was how he treated you while you were in his care. Some of what he had done was warranted – you had needed a lot of physical bolstering when he first met you. You needed an internal translator, vaccinations, physical activity, and to be slowly introduced to new foods and plentiful amounts of water. Nothing could change Marco’s mind that he had done the best for you that he could for your physical needs.

But would you have have tried to escape if he had listened to you more often? You had been clear that you hadn’t liked being subservient to him, that you saw yourself as an equal to him despite your smaller stature and weaker nature. It wasn’t your fault that you were born as a human, no more than it was his that he had been born a Phoenix. Marco’s mind kept returning to the examination he’d given you when he had first met you, the very thing that had unknowingly helped you make your escape. Knowing you as he did now, Marco now understood how scared you probably were back then, how enraged you were at the way he treated you as no more than a pet. He cringed thinking of how he had introduced you to the Commanders, silencing you with a muzzle when you dared to correct him, how he’d forced you to spend time with Izou despite your obvious trauma.

But it was all too little too late. You were gone and there was no way to recover you. Marco hung his head before rounding the corner to the bridge. If he could do everything over again, he wouldn’t treat you like a pet. You were so much more than that, and he’d spend the rest of his long life regretting every decision that led to you escaping. If he could have one more day, one more moment with you….but that wasn’t possible. It wasn’t productive to think about an outcome like that, and he needed to accept that.

“Hey, Pops,” Marco murmured dejectedly, flying up to perch on his father’s shoulder. When Marco had first been found, sometimes he would perch on Whitebeard’s shoulder to sleep when he was restless. Pops’ deep voice, and the warm, living rock under his talons lulled him into slumber. Maybe he could do so again after talking to Pops, Marco thought wistfully before banishing the thought. He was no wayward child, and he deserved everything that was coming his way. 

“Marco,” was Pops’ laconic reply. Pops hadn’t yelled at Marco or said anything much about you escaping - though Marco didn’t think he would anyway. Marco didn’t reply, just huddled in closer to his father. His eyes caught sight of something dark and furry – Ace was sleeping on their father’s other shoulder. Unlike Marco, Ace had never given up sleeping on Pops and could often be found there, curled up and sleeping soundly at all hours of the day or night. 

“What happened, my son?” Pops asked gently, trying to prod Marco into talking. Marco slouched, not wanting to have the conversation that he knew had to happen. Of course, Pops knew you had gotten away and that you had leaked your own existence. Everyone in the entire universe knew that. But Marco hadn’t shared the details yet. He sighed, this was the first step on the way to telling everyone else as well. 

“Luna escaped yoi,” Marco began, unsure how else to begin the conversation. The sound of rocks clacking was his only hint before Marco felt Pops’ hand near him. Marco took the invitation and stepped onto Pops’ hand, willing to receive the comfort. Pops’ finger rubbed down Marco’s back as he waited for Marco to continue.

“She removed all the tracking devices that I had implanted on her, and chose an old escape pod over the new ones. She executed the pop green and leaked information about her own existence in that distress signal, like you saw yoi,” Marco continued, aware that his story wasn’t in chronological order. It was like his mind was rebelling against him, refusing to give clear guidance as to what happened.

“I’m sorry, Captain. I – she –” Marco continued, his mind whirling. He didn’t want to say that you were gone, he didn’t want to say how you did it, all he wanted was for you to return to him. Marco shook his head, he needed to get a grip – Whitebeard wasn’t only his father, he was the Captain of the ship as well. Marco needed to give accurate information, no matter how much it pained him.

“It’s alright, Marco. Take your time,” Newgate murmured, his gravelly voice bringing some measure of comfort. Marco took a few breaths and sat up straight, ready to perform as the First Division Commander. It was his duty to report his failed mission, and he would do so to the best of his ability.

“Luna memorized the location of a ponyglyph. She flew out to it, from which she –”

“Oh, those things with the numbers on ‘em?” Ace asked, stretching his legs out in front of him, his toes splayed. Marco’s mouth hung open as he slowly turned to a yawning Ace.

“What.”

“What? You know, those things that are in lotsa places? That’s what you’re talking about, right? Never knew what the numbers were for. You think they’re coords?” Ace asked, scratching his chest with his pointed nails. Marco could barely understand Ace’s words, his heart felt like it was going to explode. He quickly flew to Ace, grabbing him by his stupid furry shoulders.

“ACE,” Marco gritted out, his grip tightening on his brother. “Can you read the numbers?”

“Everyone can read those numbers, duh,” Ace grumbled, his own hands coming up to grip Marco’s wrists. “And ow, you’re puncturing my skin–”

“NO. NO THEY CAN’T YOI. NO ONE CAN READ THE– ohmygods –” Marco’s vision was tunneling as he put his head in his hands – was this – could they – Marco couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. Maybe the answer had been sitting with them at the Commander’s table the whole time. Marco quickly pinged Izou, not even telling him what he needed him for.

They had a human colony to find.

“Huh. I thought everyone knew they had numbers,” Ace said easily, leaning back in his chair. The three Commanders were now in an impromptu emergency meeting, sitting in Marco’s lab. Depending on what Ace told them, Marco wanted to be ready to move immediately. And that included getting real meds ready. If they found Lafftale, there was no telling what medical supplies would be needed.

“No. We only learned that when Luna escaped,” Izou clarified. “Can you read the ponyglyphs?” Izou asked impatiently, leaning in to talk to Ace. Izou wasn’t faring much better than Marco, his face sunken and his eye bags pronounced. 

“No, only the numbers. I wasn’t taught how to read words,” Ace replied, digging a claw into the tabletop. That much was true, Marco recalled, Blamenco had been the first to really spend time teaching Ace to read.

“Stop ruining the table,” Izou said absently, knocking Ace’s hand away.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Marco said, pacing the back of the room. 

“Why would I? There’s tons of garbage out in space, why would I tell you that I can read some of it? I’m sure you guys can read some of the shit out there too,” Ace asked, rolling his eyes. 

“Why did you never follow the coords?” Izou asked, his tentacles snapping.

“Again, why would I? Following random numbers you find in space isn’t a good idea, come on now,” Ace said solemnly with a shake of his head. Marco’s eyes shot to Izou, who gave Marco a glare in return. Izou was trying to tell Marco to calm down and not kill Ace, though the thought was tempting them both.

“So, you must be human then,” Izou said, shifting the conversation. Ace yawned again, stretching his arms over his head. For a being who might be their closest link to finding Lafftale, Ace did not seem overly interested or concerned.

“Only some. Maybe like 25%, 30% something like that? Allegedly my mom was from Lafftale,” Ace replied, picking his teeth.

“This is completely ridiculous yoi!” Marco exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air.

“You can lie about that but you can’t convincingly lie to Luna that the old pods don’t work?” Izou asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m not good at lying,” Ace explained. “And I didn’t lie. No one ever asked what my hDNA percentage was,” Ace replied, shrugging a shoulder. Marco could feel his blood pressure rising, he was practically like you with his lack of control over his bodily functions. Thinking back to Ace’s chaotic joining of the crew, Marco realized he never scanned the punk. Marco’s fingers curled into his fist, anger rising faster than it had since he could remember. 

“And you didn’t think to tell us that you’re human yoi?!” Marco yelled, punching the wall. Ace crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair.

“Like I said, I’m only part and for the third time, why would I? Lotsa people have high hDNAs. My mom never told me she was from Lafftale, that was just something I heard later. She taught me the numbers and started to teach me to read but then she died,” Ace said, his eyes distant for a moment. “Besides, that’s the kind of thing you keep to yourself. I didn’t want the reputation. Look how you treated Luna,” he spat back. Marco’s mouth hung open. There was no way he was going to be condescended to by Ace of all beings. 

“You burned her so badly her skin peeled!” Marco was quick to retort. Ace snorted before standing up and getting into Marco’s personal space.

“I didn’t know she was so susceptible to burns, I thought she was more like me. And I only did it because you told us she was a liar and not to be trusted. I always thought she was a full being in her own right,” Ace hissed, his tail whipping like a warning. Marco wasn’t one to be intimidated by anyone and took a step forward, the two Commanders now inches away from one another. 

“So self righteous yoi. And you think that you would have done any better with her? You nearly killed her. And you offered her meat and food that would have hurt her. You don’t know anything about her or what she needs,” Marco rebutted, his eyes flashing.

“The stuff you did to her was horrible –”

“I assure you, she liked it yoi. Don’t tell me you didn’t hear her calling out my name–” Marco hissed back before being interrupted.

“Not the sex stuff, you fucking idiot. You treated her like a fucking pet! Making her call you Master, taking away all her freedom–” Marco’s flames were igniting at Ace’s words, even though they were all things he had thought about himself. Marco could admit his mistakes, but he couldn’t take Ace throwing them in his face. And for Ace of all beings to call Marco an idiot? Marco was seeing red, his ability to not fight with Ace diminishing by the second.

“Enough,” Izou said, placing himself between the Commanders and pushing them apart with his tentacles. “We need to focus. Ace, if you can read those coords, we can find where Luna went.” Marco backed off, his flames immediately extinguishing as he turned away from Ace. Izou was right, what was he thinking? If they wanted Ace to help, Marco couldn’t fight him over a few harsh truths.

“I’m sorry, Ace. I just…I really need to find Luna and the rest of the humans,” Marco explained, rubbing his temple with one hand.

“Why should I help you? You’re just gonna treat Luna like a pet again. And it was awesome how she escaped,” Ace said petulantly, kicking a chair away with his boot. Marco sighed and leaned against the wall. This was something he’d been thinking about endlessly since you’d gotten away.

“I won’t yoi. We won’t treat her like that again, or any other human for that matter. Luna’s proved she’s much more than a pet. Humans aren’t some docile species, they’re just as smart as we are and deserves to be treated that way. When she — if she comes back, I won’t — they’re not pets, but they are vulnerable and do need help. We need to save her – er, the humans. They’re physically quite fragile and the medicine Luna took with her doesn’t work –”

“What do you mean it doesn’t work?” Ace huffed, leaning against the wall next to Marco. “Why would you do that to her?”

“I didn’t mean to. They’re all placebos. I thought I would be with her, and able to correctly dose the humans. What Luna took is not going to save them from the viruses that are plaguing Lafftale. From what we gathered from Luna, Oro’s virus is still actively spreading and killing humans there yoi,” Marco explained, ruffling his head feathers. Ace’s face darkened with the name of the virus, his mouth clamping shut.

“I thought they solved that one,” Ace muttered, his eyes flat.

“A cure was discovered, but the humans don’t have it. That’s why Luna went into space in the first place, to find out if there was a vaccine. She didn’t even know there was a cure until I told her yoi,” Marco replied, thinking back to the scant conversations you’d had on the matter.

“Ace, they’re all going to die. Every single person Luna cares about will die a horrible death,” Izou said softly, his hand gently stroking the fur of Ace’s forearm. “We’re not mad at Luna, she did what she had to. We backed her into a corner and she fought back. It’s not going to be retribution or revenge, but if we don’t find the colony, all the humans will die,” Izou said, trying to drive his words home. “You said your mother was from Lafftale - do you think she’d want everyone there to perish because we couldn’t help them in time?” Izou continued. Ace hummed but didn’t answer, setting his hat farther down on his forehead.

“Read us the numbers, Ace. We can save them. We can save the humans from extinction,” Izou encouraged Ace, his hand rubbing the spot by Ace’s ears he loved so much. 

“And you won’t treat them like pets? If you do, I’ll free them myself, even if I have to take you all on. If they're at all like Luna, we'll have no problem getting away from you guys. And that’s not a promise, it’s a threat,” Ace vowed, his eyes flashing.

“We won’t. I can’t – things won’t be like that again, I promise. She's not -- they're not pets. But we need to get moving. There’s no telling how rapidly Oro’s Virus progressed in the time that Luna went to space. I don’t know how long it takes to work its way through humans, but I worry that it isn’t long yoi,” Marco explained. He gave Ace’s shoulder a squeeze, willing Ace to see how Marco felt. 

"They've made it all this time without any help, maybe they'd rather die free," Ace wavered, uncertainty in his eyes. 

“Please, Ace,” Marco begged, ready to go on his hands and knees if asked. “Luna is -- Luna's my mate yoi." Marco whispered. The truth of his words settled over Marco as they left his mouth. Marco hadn't intended on saying anything like that, but the moment he did, he knew it to be true. It was something he had been avoiding until now, but the truth was staring him in the face. You were his mate, his one true connection that he could never live without. Marco had the undeniable fortune to meet you once, he wasn't going to lose you again.

“Luna isn’t a pet, she’s my one true mate. I have to go to her, I have to protect her. I can’t – I can’t live without her. It won't be like it was before. I regret the way I treated her and I deserve everything she did to me. But we need to help them, the humans can't make it on their own. Luna is going to have to watch everyone she loves slowly die before dying cold, hungry and alone. Please, Ace. Please save them yoi," Marco pleaded. 

Ace looked at Marco, their eyes meeting for a moment. Ace closed his eyes and sighed, making a decision in his mind. He opened his eyes and gave Marco a wicked smile, pushing his hat back with his index finger. 

“There's only one way to live life, and that's without regrets. Let's go save some humans."

DELETED SCENE

So this was originally going to be where Izou, Thatch, and Marco were chasing Luna as she traveled to the Ponyglyph. It didn’t fit the vibe of the scene, and it doesn’t fit the next chapter either. BUT I am having too much fun torturing Marco so I’m including it here.

~

“Oh, look! She’s gonna play with her toy,” Thatch said as he watched the screen. Marco’s head snapped up from where he was watching the map. The blood drained from his face as he looked over at the main screen and saw that you had indeed, taken out the rose toy. Were you actively trying to kill him?

“Mmh. I did wonder what kind of games Luna would play on her journey,” Izou drawled, watching the screen intently. Did Izou suspect what it was? Marco closed his eyes and willed you with all his might to put the toy back, to take out Vista’s flower, to take out a fucking bow, or his feather, or to do anything except what you were about to do. 

Instead, you slipped his blanket off your shoulders and draped yourself over the chair, like an Empress awaiting an audience.

“Oooh, I like this kind of game,” Thatch said with a small whistle. You spread your legs, your little fingers trailing up your own leg to the apex of your thighs. Spinning the toy in your hand, you found the power button and turned it on. A low buzzing filled Marco’s cabin as you spread your legs even wider, bringing the toy to your precious clit. They had a perfect view of your luscious little body as you tried to bring yourself to climax.

“I – uh – oh. Oh! Oh,” Thatch exclaimed, leaning forward in his seat. You joined Thatch’s noises, creating oohs and aahs of your own. Marco rubbed his temples – for the thousandth time today, this couldn’t be happening. 

“That kind of toy,” Izou purred, twirling a strand of his long hair around his finger. “Very interesting. But where did she get it?” he asked, not bothering to look at Marco.

“I made it for her so she could orgasm independently,” Marco admitted as you put your heel on the armrest of the chair, exposing yourself even more to their view. Your glistening cunt was on full display, much to Marco’s interest and dismay. Marco’s cock was tight against his pants, but he didn’t dare free it in the small cabin.

“What does it do?” Izou continued, his tentacles finally relaxing from their tightly bound position.

“It, er, mimics the sensation of oral sex yoi,” Marco replied as your lower back arched. Like the other two Commanders, Marco’s attention was fixed on you as the toy brought you closer to your goal. Marco could only pray that you stopped at one orgasm, rather than the times you sought multiple.

“Very interesting,” Izou repeated, his head tilting as he watched your toes curl.

“Why would she do that now?” Thatch asked in a daze, his eyes glued to the screen. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful, but –”

“She’s trying to relax yoi,” Marco gritted out. He had watched you masturbate countless times since he had given you the toy, and it seemed he was about to do so once again. Marco believed that you often used masturbation as a means of destressing yourself, the pleasure sometimes even lulling you into a short nap. You were breathing heavily now, blood rushing to your face. Your free hand was plucking at your nipple, rolling it between your fingers like Marco had done so many times before. 

"As she should. She's had a stressful day," Izou husked, leaning forward on the controls.

“Izou, can you disconnect the audio and video feeds?” Marco asked as your soft moans filled the cabin. Izou shook his head, his eyes locked on to your now messy cunt. Your fingers left your nipple to slowly trace the opening of your weeping hole, the act as mesmerizing as it was lewd. Out of the corner of his eye, Marco saw Izou’s hectcotylus

“No. If I disengage the audio or visual feeds, I won’t be able to reconnect them,” he said dazedly, as you began to pump your small fingers inside your hole. Your head was thrown back in pleasure, your legs shifting with the increasing pleasure.

“Can we at least turn off our screen yoi?” Marco snapped. Izou’s eyes flicked to Marco and he pursed his lips. Marco hoped his brother would take pity on him – Marco wasn’t sure how much more he could take.

“Very well. I will turn off the screen on our end. The audio must remain otherwise it will be lost. It is also recording,” Izou bargained. Marco scowled, but didn’t know enough about the audio to disagree with Izou’s statement. He suspected that Izou could turn off the audio on their end, but there was no way to be sure. As he desired, Izou closed the visual feed, at which point you loudly moaned, your pleasure seconds away. No one was making any sound except you, the Commanders all listening intently to every note that left your beautiful lips.

“She makes the prettiest noises,” Thatch said dazedly, his gaze still fixed on the now blank screen. Marco pretended not to notice the large tent in Thatch's suit, his two cocks both pressing on the fabric. The only thing that could be heard were your breathy moans and the squelching of your lovely pussy. Marco wasn’t sure his cock could get any harder, but he didn't dare palm it over the material of his pants. He felt like one touch and he’d be coming in his pants like a youngling.

“~ohh M-mar — oh my f-fuck,” you moaned quietly. Marco’s head perked up immediately — were you fantasizing about him? Marco didn’t have to wonder for long as you came with a drawn out moan, your lilting voice filling the cabin. Marco could only imagine the scene you were making in the pod, your legs spread wide open, your pretty pussy sopping wet, your tiny toes curled into your feet.  He shifted uncomfortably in his seat, wishing he was there with you for the millionth time.

“Hnnhhhh Mar-CO!” you cried, your voice cracking as you hit your peak, your voice fading to a low moan as you continued to come. The three Commanders listened intently to every decibel they could hear as you groaned. Marco imagined you flopping down onto the chair, completely boneless in that way you often were post orgasm.

"Wow, she really loves you. She must be so upset to leave," Thatch murmured, turning to look at Marco. Marco gave a knowing smile, happy to show off how much you cared for him. Finally, they'd see that you had a tremendous amount of respect for him, that you trusted and loved him like he loved you.

"Of course yoi. I have been taking care of her --"

"At least he was good at something," you muttered to yourself.

Notes:

I can hear your anguished cries already … you didn’t really think I’d let the humans die on Lafftale, did you?? Don’t be too upset, there's plenty of more fun to be had. Ace isn’t the first in his bloodline to fuck up other people’s plans :) And for those of you who wanted a feistier MC, Terra might be the woman you’re looking for. I did fudge Ace's background a little bit but not too much. This is a series – there’s 2 more chapters in this fic, but there’s at least 2 more long fics that I’m planning on for these characters (+ at least one spin off) so plenty more to come.

Marco entered the Commander’s lounge, where everyone was already waiting. They did have a meeting right now – everyone was gathered to watch you make your escape. It was almost like a live event, with multiple lenses on multiple screens tracking you as you moved down the hallways. Marco made his way to the front of the chairs, plopping down just as you were rounding the hallway towards his room. 

Marco was curious about your plans to “get away,” even though they were helping you to escape. The other Commanders wanted to watch as well, and were also interested in seeing Lafftale, the nearly fantastical location so close to being found. Everyone knew it would take some time to get to, but the excitement was nearly palpable as the Commanders gathered round to watch the screens.

“Right on time for the show,” Ace said, slinging an arm around Marco’s shoulders. Marco shrugged him off – he wanted to watch you every second to make sure you weren’t harmed. 

“He’s not in the mood, Ace,” Izou chided, sitting down primly next to Marco. Izou was sipping on a cup of hot tea, like he was watching some vid on the screen.

“Nothing’s happened, though,” Ace said, his tail flicking.

“It’s about to, look. She’s entering Marco’s room,” Izou said, a tentacle pointing towards the largest screen.  

“Are you sure she’s gonna escape? She seems so chill right now, maybe she’s just gonna relax,” Thatch said, already on the edge of his seat. If there was someone who was more anxious than Marco, it was Thatch.

“I’m certain. Watch –” Izou encouraged before taking another sip. Marco watched you as you moved through his room with familiar ease, stopping for a moment to press your small hand on his bed. You made a wistful sigh before making your way to the small container of your belongings that Marco had given you. Rifling through it briefly, you grabbed the satchel that Ace had given you, checking its content before slinging it over your shoulder. 

“Aw, she’s taking the bag I gave her!” Ace said happily, bouncing in his seat.

“And the flower I gifted her as well. And a feather from your plumage as well I see,” Vista said with approval as you shoved the Eternal Romance flower he had given you into your bag along with the feather Marco had. Marco hummed, pleased to see you taking a reminder of him with you. At least now he knew you’d be thinking of him, not just hoping.

“Aw, but not any of the bows. Maybe she didn’t like the colors. I tried so hard to guess what she would like, but I musta guessed wrong,” Jiru said sadly as you rifled through the contents of the box, tossing out the myriad bows you’d been given over the weeks. “Didn’t you give her one too, Izou?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t surprise me she isn’t taking them,” he replied with a smile. “Oh? What’s that she’s grabbing?” Izou asked, his tentacles wriggling. Marco licked his lips as he watched you delicately put the rose toy on top of everything and patted it gently. You were much more careful with the rose than you had been with the priceless flower Vista had given you.

“What is that item?” Izou asked, his eyes flashing with amusement.

“It’s a toy yoi,” Marco replied, trying to keep interest to a minimum. Izou hummed as his tentacles curled tighter, but Marco ignored it for the moment. 

You grabbed a containment cube and tapped on its screen, making it follow behind you. There was a clear plan in your mind as you worked quickly, taking item after item and putting it in your container. You took the protective suit Marco had given you for Kyuka, as well as your red blanket, and Marco’s pillow. Your eyes flicked to Marco’s blanket, and you paused in your motions. Seconds ticked by before you rolled it up and put it inside the container. 

After a few moments, you gave everything in the room one last look before nodding to yourself and heading out the door. Marco’s heart fell in his chest – you really were planning on leaving. At least you would have something that smelled like him, Marco thought to himself.

Next, you headed towards Marco’s lab. Marco wasn’t surprised in the slightest, he knew you would want the vaccines and medicine. There was chattering among the Commanders, but Marco could only focus on you. And just as he had anticipated, you beelined for the cabinet that held the syringes and vials. You scanned the vials slowly, your finger under each word as you sounded it out. You licked your lips and nodded before carefully wrapping all the vials in your blanket and putting it back in the cube. It seemed you took every single vaccine and treatment Marco had left out for you. You didn’t know they were fake, but it wouldn’t matter. Marco would be there with you to treat all the humans, and it wouldn’t hurt them if they received a shot anyway.

“She learned to read!” Blenheim exclaimed. “Good job, Luna.”

“Yes, she’s been working quite diligently at it yoi,” Marco said absently. He watched you take your Eurt glass and wrap it in his blanket with a small smile to yourself. Marco would have to get more glasses made, since you liked them so much. Even though you were trying to leave him, Marco couldn’t help but think of ways to make you happier upon your return. Once all the humans were safe and secure, Marco was sure you’d settle down. With no more worries about your friends and companions, you’d be much more open to living on the Moby, far from the harsh conditions of Lafftale.  

“Learned faster than me,” Ace said, like he was proud of your achievement. 

“It’s not a competition. You already knew some other language, but not Common,” Curiel said consolingly. Ace just laughed. You continued raiding his cabinets, taking nearly all the supplies within them. Gauze, bandages, salves, thermometers, wound cleaner – anything that you thought might be useful was tossed into your container. It made Marco wonder – what was going on in Lafftale? He supposed he would find out soon enough.

“But what’s she up to now?” he asked, his ears perking up. 

“I’m not entirely sure,” Marco replied honestly. You were rummaging around in his cabinets, clearly looking for something. You quickly placed gauze and bandages on the counter, but you continued to search for something else.

Suddenly you stood up straight, pleased with yourself. Marco strained to see what you had in your hands…it was the fabric cutter he had used on your original Wapolium suit. Without hesitation, you turned it on and began slicing off the protective youngling suit that Marco had put on you all those weeks prior. To Marco’s growing horror, you were naked within moments, the suit falling to the floor in shreds.

“Woo hoo! Go Luna!” Namur exclaimed. Marco’s face flamed  – what on Eurt were you up to?! You needed the suit! It was both protective and soft against your skin, how were you going to cope without it? 

“Alright, I don’t think we need to watch –” Marco stood up to block some of the screens, not wanting everyone else to fawn over your nude body. Yes, he had sent a video of you nude before, but that was different. That was scientific, whereas you being nude now was lewd torture for everyone. You put away the fabric shears but were still nude as you shuffled around, looking for something else.

“Move, Marco,” Rakuyo muttered, shoving Marco back to his seat with a heavy hand on his shoulder. Marco grumbled, but didn’t really have a rebuttal. Everyone was there to watch your escape, and he supposed this was part of it. Marco crossed his arms and looked away – this wasn’t how your escape was supposed to go. 

“Aww, her pussy hair grew back,” Thatch cooed, looking up at the screen.

“It’s called pubic hair,” Marco grumbled. 

“It’s quite sweet,” Izou chimed in. “I would never shave it off if I had a human. Perhaps trim it,” he said speculatively. 

“Oh, but her foot-fingers aren’t painted anymore,” Thatch pointed out with a sad sigh.

“Toes,” Marco supplied. “And no, it wore off.”

“Her tummy is rounder now,” Vista commented. “She looks much healthier. Great work, Thatch.”

“Thank you, I’ve been feeding her meat non-stop –” Thatch responded happily, but Marco was still annoyed that you were nude on screen for everyone to see. You were now bent over, looking at something in a lower cabinet, and Marco didn’t think he’d seen the Commanders paying such rapt attention to anything since they fought the Roger pirates. 

“It’s not a tummy, she is an adult human female yoi. It’s her stomach,” Marco tossed out petulantly. Secretly, he did think of it as your tummy, but that was private! 

“I love it. It’s soft and squishy and cute. It’s definitely a tummy,” Vista retorted. 

“What about her ass? Much rounder,” someone pointed out, to a round of general approval.

“I’m lookin’, but not at her tummy. Look at that sweet cunt, doesn’t it make you want to bury your–”

“ENOUGH,” Marco barked, completely unwilling to listen to any further commentary on your body. By now, you had moved on to doing something else. Marco frowned, you had already surprised him by cutting off the suit, what else could you have in store? Hopefully the rest of your plan aligned with what they had laid out for you and he could stop stressing so much. 

Now you were prodding and squeezing your shoulder blade, right where…your tracker was…. But you couldn’t be thinking of doing that, could you? Marco exhaled a shaky breath, he needed to compose himself. After all, there was no way for you to get it out from underneath your skin. Marco had purposely taken all sharp objects out of the lab in order to prevent you from obtaining a weapon. Marco didn’t think you could hurt any of them, but he didn’t want to risk the possibility of you hurting yourself either.

“Ooh she got one of your talons, Marco,” Atmos squealed. Marco’s attention snapped to the screen, his sulk gone. And indeed, you had pulled one of his talon ends out of your satchel and set it on the lab table. Marco’s mouth hung open, that was what you wanted his talon for!? Had you been planning as far in advance as Kyuka? His hand itched to spank you on the spot for being so naughty. 

You wiped your skin with rubbing alcohol, like you’d done this action hundreds of times before. Marco watched in growing horror as you squeezed your skin and tapped the middle of the area with your finger. You kept your eyes on the spot, grabbed Marco’s talon and took a deep breath. You wouldn’t…. you couldn’t… Marco couldn’t tear his eyes from the screen as you exhaled, your eyes filled with determination. 

“HELL YEAH LUNA!” Haruta cheered as you sliced into your skin with Marco’s talon. You had unerringly cut right where the tracker was. Red blood immediately welled from your wound as you pushed your finger into the incision, digging around for the tracker. The crew applauded you as you mutilated yourself, your precious blood running in rivulets down your arm.

“She really is like one of us –”

“Whoa, her blood is red. So weird –”

“LUNA!” Marco yelled, his mouth open in abject horror. How could you do this to yourself? You were hurt, you’d get an infection, you would – he need to get to –

“Hold him,” Izou said calmly,  still drinking his tea. Ace’s warm limbs were immediately wrapped around Marco, pulling him back down onto the soft couches. Marco hadn’t even realized he had stood up, he was so engrossed in watching you. 

“Stop it!” Marco barked, trying to push Ace off him. But for all his faults, Ace was one of the best grapplers on the ship, and frankly better than Marco. Marco could not disentangle himself from Ace's capable limbs, no matter how hard he tried. It felt like the more Marco struggled, the more entangled he became. 

“Nah, Izou warned us this might happen,” Ace said cheerfully, his tail shifting positions to wrap around Marco more securely. “You need to relax - we want her to get away, right? To find the other humans, yeah? She’s got a small cut, she’ll be fine,” Ace said, his voice calm. 

“But she –”

“But she’s fine. We’re all watching her. If something goes wrong, we can help her. Nothing too bad has happened. I even made that new pod look like her old one for her. 10-5 is ready and able to be controlled remotely,” Ace reasoned with Marco. 

“Chill, man,” Ace said as you finally pulled the tracker out of your shoulder with a shudder. You held it triumphantly before your eyes before narrowing them at the small device. Frankly, Marco was surprised you remembered about the tracker. He purposefully hadn’t mentioned it to you in a very long time, hoping you’d forget all about it. It was one of his failsafes to ensure they never lost you completely, that there was always some tether between you and him. Luckily, your controller was still locked on you, and he didn’t think you’d figure out a way to get it off. It was only a pressure lock, but still, you couldn’t produce enough force to make it unlock.

You held the tracker between your fingers for a moment, as if you were considering what to do with it. Setting it down on the table, you put a medical patch on your shoulder and allowed it to adhere to your skin. At least you were taking care of yourself a little bit, Marco thought, slightly mollified by the self cleaning patch. 

Next, you reached for the secondary suit Marco had given you for Kyuka. You pressed the textile disc onto your chest and waited for the tougher suit to wrap over your body. There were manifold groans in the room as your body was soon covered and no longer available for their visual perusal. Marco groaned because he was concerned the Wapolium suit was going to shred your sensitive skin. It was of a higher quality than the one he had found you in, but was still too rough for you to wear directly on your body. Why would you do that? You weren’t going to be able to sit for a week after he got you back.

You grabbed the tracker and left the lab, the containment cube following closely behind you. Passing by Marco’s room once again, you opened the door and tossed the tracker in without a second glance.  By now Marco had calmed down enough that Ace had loosened his grip. Ace was now leaning on Marco, and Marco looped an arm around Ace. Maybe he did need a little bit of emotional support.

“Clever. So if you were tracking her, it would show she’s in your room. She’s doing really well,” Blamenco praised you. Marco frowned, he didn’t want you to be doing well, he wanted everything to go smoothly so there were no hiccups. Still, it did give him some measure of pride to see you accomplishing your goal so intelligently. 

The Commanders watched eagerly as you made your way to the kitchens, stopping momentarily when a crew member hailed you. You pretended nothing was amiss, smiling but quickly walking away. Marco gritted his teeth, the crew had been explicitly told not to bother you, but you were too interesting for your own good. Soon you made your way into the kitchen, going straight for the cupboard that Thatch had shown to you. 

“Oh! She remembered! I’m so glad,” Thatch cooed as you piled all the food trays into your container. Unbeknownst to you, they’d also stocked pod 10-5 with human safe food, but Marco was glad to see that you were seriously preparing for your journey. Lafftale must be quite far, because you were taking every single human-safe item that was in the cabinet.

“Tch. ‘Course she remembered, she’s not an idiot. She’s smarter than y’give ‘er credit for. She made it in space by herself for a while before we met her,” Fossa grumbled. You’d spent more time with Fossa recently, Marco had heard about your forays into the engineering bays. Apparently you had a keen interest in the workings of the ship and had quizzed Fossa about the ship for a few hours. You must have made quite the impression on Fossa, Marco reflected. The Commander was known to be fair and reasonable, but not always so lavish with praise.

“Barely,” Marco muttered, watching you close the door to the cupboard again. “She was quite sick when I found her. Nearly dead. I worry she may be nearing that state soon yoi.”

“She will be completely fine. Release and catch,” Izou assured Marco, a tentacle patting Marco’s knee. 

“But where’s she going? The escape pods aren’t that way,” Ace commented, his ears twitching. “She’s going more towards the center of the ship, but how’s that gonna help her?” And, indeed, you were walking closer and closer to the central spoke of the ship. Since the kitchen and dining hall was designed to be accessible, it was located in the middle of the ship. You walked with purpose to the main mast from which all other levels and floors emanated, your fingers trailing along the wall as if looking for something.

Everyone fell into silence as they watched you stop, feeling the groove of where the maintenance hatch was. You looked up and tapped at your controller nonchalantly, like you were sending a message to Marco. Perhaps Marco had been correct in his initial assessment of you – humans were excellent liars it seemed. 

“What’s she –” Jiru’s sentence was cut off as you brought up a picture of you and Fossa standing next to each other on the engineering deck, both of your hands up in the air facing the camera. You were smiling brightly and Fossa was allowing the picture to be taken, so he must have been in a fabulous mood. Using your nimble fingers, you zoomed in until Fossa’s hand was the only image available on the picture. Tapping on the hatch had a screen popup asking for authorization. You held up the picture to the scanner. Everyone leaned forward in their seats, watching you attempt to override their complex security.

“Tch. This little liar told me it was a human gesture,” Fossa grumbled, crossing his arms. 

“Me too. I took one just like that with her,” Ace commented, scratching his chin. 

“What she’s doing won’t work,” Jozu stated as he watched you intently. “The tech is advanced, it will recognize that it is an image of Fossa’s hand, not his actual –”

“It didn’t,” Izou noted cooly as the scanner chirped happily. The hatch popped open, granting you access to the main spoke of the ship. Jozu’s mouth hung open as your hand went into your satchel.

“But - it  - I -” Jozu stammered before typing on his controller, presumably to his division. “That’s not - she –” Outwardly, Marco was shocked along with the rest of the crew. Inwardly, he was both proud as well as felt a growing sense of vindication. Now the crew would see your ingenuity and cleverness, how much trouble you really were. 

Marco watched as you threw a few handfuls of something from your satchel down the mast. Afterwards, you also tossed one handful up, small tinkling sounds resounding as whatever that was spread through the main mast.

“Ugh foreign debris is so annoying to get out of the spoke. And Fossa’s spiderlings can’t always understand what we’re looking for. I bet we’re gonna have to go in there,” Ace whined. “Whaddya think she threw in there? Incendiary material?” You shut the door to the hatch carefully and patted it twice, like it was a friend to you. Shortly thereafter you walked away, your cube still trailing behind you. 

“Is that her whole distraction? I don’t think that will –”

Loud booms resounded through the ship, but nothing strong enough to trigger any kind of panic for the general crew. There was always something happening on the Moby, and these explosions weren’t particularly strong.

“Heh. Smart, but not gonna work. The masts are fire resistant from the inside. Actually, they’re designed to snuff fire out. So if she put some kind of bomb –” but Fossa’s words died as he started getting pings on his Controller. The Commander bit his cigar as he started reading. His compound eyes moved rapidly, his satisfied grin quickly changing to a scowl.

“Fuck,” Fossa swore, swiping through rapidly incoming messages.

“Those aren’t bombs, those are –”

“FUCK!” Fossa repeated, puffing on his cigar furiously.

“Ace, come with me,” Fossa ordered, despite being of equal rank. “It’s fucking pop green. Massive vines are rapidly growing in every power shaft on the ship. We need to clear them out before they choke out the tech. They’re not going to damage the power or air, but they’re currently expanding at an exponential rate in the main drive of the ship. As I just said, we can’t use fire to get them out and apparently they’re hearty and still fucking growing,” Vista explained hurriedly to the assembled Commanders.

“Oh, fuck. That’s actually – wow, good for her, but this is like, actually bad. If there’s no main drive, the ship can’t move –” Ace exclaimed, running after Fossa. Marco raised an eyebrow. A warning signal went off in the ship as Fossa’s gravelly voice resounded through the ship.

ALL ENGINEERING CREW REPORT TO THE MAIN ENGINEERING DECK REPEAT ALL ENGINEERING CREW REPORT TO THE MAIN ENGINEERING DECK

“She’s –  that’s  – d’ya think she’ll actually get away?” Haruta asked, admiration in his tone. 

“No,” Izou and Marco said simultaneously. Marco’s nerves were frayed, but he could calm down by reminding himself there were still many safe guards to make sure that you remained under their supervision. The warning alarms and lights didn’t phase you at all as you made your way down to Navigation. The crew was swarming around, almost completely ignoring you as you walked… right past the new escape pod deck. 

“Ace did destroy her old pod, correct?” Izou said, putting down his tea as his attention remained fixed on the screens. Was Izou getting nervous? Marco nodded, he had made sure that heap of junk was destroyed. Marco’s heart rate quickened as you swiftly made your way to the old escape pod bay. His eyes narrowed – you’d been in there before. How had you known what was there? You quickly opened the door and darted inside, looking wildly around the bay before running to an old pod in the back of the bay, starting and stopping in the shadows as if someone was lurking there.  

“Hey, her running is better. She’s not as out of breath,” Thatch pointed out. Marco resisted the urge to preen. See? He knew you needed cardiovascular activity. 

“Wait, why isn’t she using the new ones like Ace told her to?” Atmos asked, tugging on one of his horns. “Aren't they safer?”

“She’s likely suspicious we would track her. That, or is more familiar with the old tech. We will destroy all of those pods shortly,” Izou said primly, already tapping on his own controller. Marco’s lips pressed together as you rounded on one of the pods, still trying to stay in the shadows. Your running may have improved but luckily your hiding hadn’t. At least they’d be able to find you easily if they needed to.

“Yeah, but they’re better. And the old ones don’t work,” Atmos continued.

“Mmm. Most of them do, actually,” Izou corrected, sitting on the edge of his seat. “But I don’t think she’ll be able to start them. They’re complicated to operate and besides, she would need someone’s biosignature –”

“Like the one from Ace she just used?” Blamenco asked, pointing at the screen. You were now in the pod, gearing it up to fly. Jozu swore loudly, standing up to stride quickly out of the room. 

“I’m dealing with it now,” he gritted to the assembled Commanders. “She won’t be able to do that again –” a cacophony of responses burbled from the crowd, everyone tossing in their opinion on your escape.

“If there is a next time -”

“Shut up. She can't outrun us-”

“She's already outsmarted us–”

“She’s amazing!”

“We shoulda let her be on the crew, I’m telling you –”

“Thatch and Izou, let’s go yoi,” Marco ordered, already halfway to the door. The three Commanders already planned to follow you in a smaller ship, but the stakes were higher now.  The pod you had selected wasn’t trackable, and wasn’t able to be controlled remotely. Therefore, they’d have to follow you directly if they wanted to know where you were going rather than the remote capability the 10-5 offered. And if the Moby was unable to move, they couldn’t follow you once you were off the ship. Marco rubbed his temples. You had created enough of an issue to where it wasn’t completely unfeasible that you might escape them for a short time.

Fuck.

Luna POV

You had been sweating bullets as you flew away from the Moby, the giant ship receding from your vision. Your biggest gamble when escaping was using one of the old pods rather than the one that was obviously able to be tracked. Yes, the features on the new pods were cool and yes you really wished that you had cloaking capabilities, but it wasn’t worth the risk. You didn’t put it past these fucks to make the pod able to be controlled remotely. Besides, you had trained on a pod almost exactly like this one so the tech was familiar to you.

You had immediately plugged in the coordinates of the ponyglyph that you’d memorized, the ship now on autopilot until you got there. You were going the fastest speed short of hyperdrive that the ship could handle.  Luckily, just as you had suspected, the Moby had been headed the right direction, so you would be there in a matter of hours. 

Even so, now that you were in the pod you were still sweating, and it wasn’t just because the stupid suit was chafing your skin. There was one more piece of your plan, and it was the most nerve wracking part of the whole thing. Everything else had been a cakewalk. You’d planned everything down to the very last detail, completely sure that your plans would work. 

And they had. 

Actually, some of what you planned worked out even better than you had anticipated. The pop green really seemed to like the environment of the ship and had grown much larger than you had predicted. Not only that but the tracker wasn’t as difficult to remove as you thought it would be and the hand photo trick had worked on everything you had wanted it to. Really, the Whitebeard Pirates weren’t as formidable as they thought they were if one small human female could escape without much trouble. Sure, they were in part allowing you to escape, but those alarms had been real. Even so, you were thankful they were letting you leave the docking bay, because that would have been a real bitch to figure out yourself.

There were a few pieces left in your plan that still needed to be enacted, and that was what was causing you the stress. The final pieces were the most risky and once you left, well, you were severing your connection to the Whitebeard Pirates and to Marco permanently. You were absolutely sure they were following you right now (and maybe even watching you), just as you had been sure Marco was watching your escape attempt. It had been a fun game of cat and mouse but it was time to get back home. A sickening feeling was growing in your stomach – something was happening on Lafftale and it wasn’t anything good.

You took a deep breath, ready to enact the final parts of your plan. But first things first – you wanted to be comfortable while you were actively destroying the peace. Pressing on the textile disc removed the protective suit, something you relished in. You never thought taking off your own clothes would be a big deal, but nothing in your life had prepared you for the experience of being with Marco. 

You tutted as you looked over your poor skin, nearly all of you red and raw from the harsh material of the suit. If Marco saw me like this… you let out a snort imagining the apoplectic lecture you would get. The healing would have been worth it, you thought wistfully, rubbing your backside. You did like that soft suit, but there was probably some kind of tracker in it. Even if there wasn’t, you weren’t going to continue wearing something you couldn’t take off yourself. 

After wrapping yourself in Marco’s blanket, you synced your controller to the ship. Marco’s scent tickled your nose as you began looking through the modules on your controller. The thick, large blanket had been a last second decision to bring, but you were glad you did. Not only was it comfortable as fuck, but you’d gotten used to his scent. The smell would fade in time, but at least you had it for now. Not that you needed it, of course, but it was definitely better than the smell of the engines.

You patted your controller fondly as you began working. It was too bad you had to get rid of this thing, it actually was pretty cool once more features had been enabled. You flicked through the screens quickly, selecting your own medical examination vid and uploading it into the pod’s computer. That was really all you needed before you dumped the thing into the airlock and shot it into space. 

But as you flicked through the screens, you saw the picture of Marco you’d taken on Kyuka. Unlike all the other photos, which had mostly been means of access to the ship, this one had no ulterior motive. You were smiling, the real light hitting your skin giving you a lovely hue. Marco looked surprised but happy, his arm wrapped around you. You thought about the feeling of safety, his warmth, the fish, the sunset… it was a fond memory of a life that you could no longer access. Licking your lips, you made the split decision to upload that pic into the computer as well. You could always delete it later, but you wouldn’t be able to get it back. There would be ample time for reflecting over all your actions, but it wasn’t now.

Now that the video was on the ship, you pressed on the small area on the underside of your controller as you had seen Marco do before. It was tricky and took a lot of tries, including you trying to step on your own arm but eventually the controller popped open like it had for him as well. You chucked it into the airlock and promptly shot it off into space. You rolled your head on your shoulders – now the real fun was about to begin.

Marco POV

Almost immediately after you entered your pod, Marco, Thatch, and Izou were in one of the smaller ships, following you while cloaked. Thankfully, the older pods weren't able to cloak, so they would be able to follow you while you navigated to your next destination. Izou had somehow been able to wrangle a low quality audio / visual feed of you inside the pod, but that was about the extent of their ability to see where you were going. They couldn’t even read your computer screen since the feeds coming in were so poor.

“Now we'll be able to see if she was lying and does know where Lafftale is. She certainly input her coordinates quickly,” Izou huffed. Marco hummed but didn’t reply. He knew Izou was already upset about Luna escaping and causing unforeseen problems. Izou prided himself on knowing all information pertaining to the crew, and yet Luna with her limited resources had somehow managed to outsmart him.

“I don’t get why we’re going this way,” Thatch said, tugging on his goatee. “There’s nothing out here.”

“I don’t know. I suppose we’ll find out. Like Izou said, Luna has a clear direction of where she’s going yoi,” Marco mused, his stomach already twisted in knots. He had a feeling something bad was going to happen, and he didn’t like it one bit. Frankly, he hoped Lafftale was wherever you input the coordinates. He wanted this adventure to be over as soon as possible, and you back in his room on the Moby. 

Marco crossed his arms as he watched remove the protective suit you were wearing. Not only were you nude in front of other Commanders again but your skin was irritated, chafed, and even bruised in some places. He wished he could heal you, the blooming marks already marring your lovely skin. Marco was never going to let you out of his sight again he decided, independence be damned.

“What is that? Why’s she mottled?” Thatch asked as you rubbed your bottom.

“She’s not mottled, she’s bruised. It indicates she has mild internal bleeding yoi,” Marco remarked as you took his blanket out of storage and wrapped it around yourself. At least you weren’t naked anymore. He had long known humans didn’t prefer nudity as a general rule, and he was glad to see that at least that was still true.  Marco kissed his teeth as he watched you sync your controller.

You plopped down in the chair in front of the computer, rolling your head on your shoulders. After so much time together, Marco knew that meant you were tense, and he wished he was there to heal you and massage you, no matter how much havoc you had wrought. At the end of it all, you were still a vulnerable human no matter how smart or capable you proved yourself to be.

Marco struggled to make sense of what he was watching you do. You uploaded your medical examination? You knew it wasn’t the only copy, so why were you taking it with you? To show the other humans? His heart surged as you flicked to the photo of the two of you on Kyuka, your eyes lingering over it. Marco’s heart soared as you licked your lips and uploaded it to the pod as well. He hadn’t been wrong, you did harbor feelings for him. His intention to become yours had come to fruition as –

As you pummeled your controller with your small fists in an attempt to take it off. The three Commanders watched as you struggled to open it, even trying to stomp on it with your foot. To Marco’s horror, the controller eventually opened with a small pop, your arm now naked as the day he found you.

“I thought you said it was locked,” Thatch said as they watched you triumphantly smile.

“Much will have to change when she is recaptured,” Izou said stiffly, his tentacles curling and uncurling as you nonchalantly tossed your controller into the airlock and sent it into space. You stretched, the blanket falling momentarily before you tucked it around yourself. 

“I’m scared to ask what she’s doing now,” Thatch mumbled as you sat in the singular seat and began typing on the computer. You were working on something for a while, clicking and watching intensely on your screen, only pausing to change positions so your legs were tucked under you. Marco remembered the many times you’d sat that when immersed in your Common lessons – whatever you were doing had your full concentration. Finally, you reviewed your screen for a moment before nodding and… hitting the distress beacon on your pod. As was intended, a blast went out from your pod to all nearby ships. But what they heard wasn’t a distress signal.

It was a call to action.

The Whitebeard Pirates have a 100% fully human fertile female aboard. 

The Whitebeard Pirates have a 100% fully human fertile female aboard.  

The Whitebeard Pirates have a 100% fully human fertile female aboard. 

The Whitebeard Pirates have a 100% fully human fertile female aboard. 

The “distress” beacon continued to sound in their ship, along with a short clip of your medical examination, showing you naked and squirming on Marco’s examination table. You were completely bare, all of you on display to the entire universe. Izou’s tentacle snapped the button to turn off the beacon so harshly the button broke.

The cabin was silent. 

You had leaked the information of your own existence to every single ship that its signal could reach. Even if they deleted the distress message now, it would be too late. The information would be shared rapidly throughout the galaxy no matter what they did.

What had you done?

The only sound that could be heard was the humming of the ship’s engines.

“I – I –” Izou was at a loss for words, his body looming over the control panel. Izou’s tentacles were wild, spreading and snapping every few seconds. Marco couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Izou this angry, perhaps not since Ace ruined his fine silk kimono. Izou’s fingers balled into fists as messages began flooding all their controllers. 

This was bad.

More than bad.

This was a catastrophe.

“Oh my fuck. Why would she – why would she do that?!? Doesn’t she understand she’s in danger now?!” Thatch roared, finally upset with your actions. 

“She absolutely understands. That’s why she did it. She’s no longer there but now we have to go deal with the fallout. We’re about to have to fight off any crew that thinks they can take our human – and there’s bound to be many. She wanted us to be unable to follow her. Not only that, I’m not certain the main drive is operational yoi,” Marco explains, completely taken aback by your actions. In all his wildest dreams, he could have never imagined you would leak your own video to the public.

“We gotta go back to help. We’re gonna be swarmed with shitty crews, it’s gonna be non-stop,” Thatch said, already reaching for his twin swords.

“No. We must continue following her. The crew is strong enough to take on any current dangers and once the drive is fixed, they’ll go into hyperspace. The Marines will likely not engage at this point. We’ve fought in more challenging situations. Right now Luna is our priority.  She cannot be allowed to evade us,” Izou hissed, his tentacles pressing more buttons on the ship’s computer than Marco’s eyes could follow.

The ship remained tense as they followed you hurrying through space towards some unknown destination. Marco, Thatch, and Izou were kept abreast of all the happenings on the ship, including the number of ships that had come to try to claim the human for themselves. Luckily, there were no casualties on the side of the Whitebeard Pirates, but the sheer number of challenging crews had threatened to overwhelm the crew. Pops had stepped in and settled a few matters, and Fossa had finally been able to clean the engines and tech of all the pop green. Everyone exhaled a sigh of relief as the ship entered hyperdrive, evading all the crews who would try to take them on. It would be a consistent problem, but Marco couldn’t concentrate on any of that. Right now you were his sole focus. 

“I will have a few things to say to Luna upon her recapture,” Izou intoned, his shoulders finally relaxing from around his ears.

“I don’t think my current punishments are enough yoi,” Marco chimed in. His own hand twitched at the thought of spanking you for your disobedience. But this wasn’t disobedience, this was sedition. He would never hurt you, but perhaps some back to back sessions of orgasm denial and overstimulation – over the course of days – would help you rethink some of your actions. 

“I assure you, they are not,” Izou hissed, exhaling out his nose. Marco wasn’t sure what Izou had in mind, but he was sure it would be an experience you wouldn’t forget.

“But really, you were the ones helping her escape. And she told us she wanted to go home, many times. We underestimated her, that’s on us,” Thatch said, ever ready to rise to your defense. 

“By quite a bit,” Izou gritted through clenched teeth.

“You’re right Thatch. We should have been more diligent yoi,” Marco sighed, rubbing his temples. Of course he was angry about your actions, but he reminded himself you were acting in the best interest of your fellow humans. They were sick and dying and you wanted to save them, it was understandable that you’d do anything for them. He would have done the same for his brothers.

Suddenly, your ship stopped… in front of nothing. There was one of those enigmatic ponyglyphs, but that was about it. Other than that, there were no planets, no stars, nothing that would indicate they were at Lafftale or any location whatsoever. 

“There’s nothing here yoi,” Marco said, more perplexed than anything else. They watched you squint at the ponyglyph, circling it several times slowly in your ship. You kept looking up at the ponyglyph and back down at the keyboard to type into your computer. Were you… getting coords from the ponyglyph?

For the thousandth time that day, Marco wished he would have never agreed to this foolish plan.

“Oh my gods. The ponyglyphs are written in human. They have the coords to Lafftale. It was in front of everyone the whole time,” Izou whispered, his hand over his mouth. “Marco, was human ever translated into any other language?”

“No, it was never formally recorded yoi,” Marco said as your ship changed the direction of its boosters. His breath caught in his throat, he was struggling to breathe. “She’s preparing for hyperdrive yoi,” Marco croaked, his head whipping around to look at his brothers, his eyes wide.

“If she goes into hyperdrive, we won’t be able to follow her,” Thatch said, your full plan finally dawning on them. “She – she got everyone busy and found a way to leave. Luna won.”

“Get her coords. GET HER COORDS YOI –”

“You can’t get coords from an escape pod! They’re for escaping! It doesn’t –”

“The feed! Use the feed!” Marco yelled, grabbing his brother by his upper arms. Marco’s vision was swimming, he felt like he was waterlogged and drowning. This couldn’t be happening. It couldn’t – they had made sure – you were supposed to – this wasn’t going to happen –

“The feed can’t see the computer, Marco! Luna’s – she –”

Marco’s mouth hung open in shock as his hands pressed impotently on the window of the pod. 

“LUNA!” Marco yelled at the top of his lungs. There was no way for you to hear him, but that didn’t stop Marco from pummeling the ship’s window with his fists. “LUNA!” he bellowed again, followed by a shrill screech of panic. 

Your ship powered up to its full pwoer and shot to an unknown location, leaving behind only a small cloud of exhaust. Into the vast universe, where Marco would never be able to find you. To Lafftale, the mythical home to the last of the human race.

You had escaped. 

“Faster we deal with this, faster you can get back to your boyfriend. Yaga’s just gonna find you and pull you out again,” Toji said with a nonchalant shrug. Gojo’s face heated with Toji’s words before Gojo licked his lips.

“Yeah, that’s true. I guess I could do something through the school. My clan – meaning moi, of course – pay a fuck ton of money in funding to this place… and I’m on the board… but what could I…” Gojo mused, tapping his chin. Gojo snapped his long fingers as he smiled, an idea formed in his mind.

“Oh! OK, how about I hire you to teach here? That way you get money and a place to stay and whatever until everything gets worked out,” Gojo said brightly. “Good? Good. I’m gonna go,” Gojo said quickly, reaching for the doorknob. Toji grabbed Playful Cloud and slapped Gojo’s hand away from the door. Or he tried, the kid had his infinity on, and Toji’s attack didn’t land. Double fucking annoying.

“Not good, you little prick. Stop thinking with your dick for five fucking minutes. The fuck would I teach? I barely passed high school,” Toji scoffed, now scratching his head.

“Hand to hand combat, obviously. You’re pretty good at it,” Gojo pointed out.

“I’m the best there is. And you guys suck pretty hard. Especially Geto,” Toji mused aloud, intentionally baiting Gojo for fun. It would be boring as fuck to teach these assholes, but at least it would be a little bit of money coming in. And it wouldn’t be forever, just until things got sorted out. Besides, if they stayed at Jujutsu High, Toji would have somewhere for you and him and Megumi to live while he figured everything out. He still had to get Naobito to divorce you and Naoya, but it would be easier if you weren’t living at the compound. It wasn’t the worst plan, and it would give you at least a few days to get everything worked out for the next move. Yeah, that would work out well as a stopgap, Toji decided.

“He does not! He’s one of the strongest –” Gojo retorted, his mouth open in affront.

“Strongest sorcerers and shittiest fighters –” Toji taunted with a grin. But his smile dropped when he thought of you.

“What about Usagi? She needs to stay too,” Toji stated. You’d been on his mind the whole time, despite your continued silence.

“Oh yeah, her,” Gojo said, looking over at you like he’d forgotten you were in the room. “ Uhm… that’s gonna cause a problem with the Zen’in. And you’re sure we can’t send her back?” 

“No. She stays with me,” Toji said, venom in his tone. He wasn’t going to bring you back to the Zen’in, no matter what Naobito and Naoya said or did. He’d fight them all if he had to, and given that everyone left him alone and didn’t give him any shit he guessed they knew the odds. No, you were done with that place and you were never going back. Megumi either – that place was the shithole he remembered and you deserved better than the life of a battered wife. Toji didn’t know what he could provide you, but he could get you out of there. He might be a complete bum, but that was the least he could do for you.

“Tch, right. I forgot about Naoya. Ugghh that complicates things –” Gojo whined.

“Either you figure it out, or the Sorcerer Killer will be taking more contracts,” Toji threatened in a quiet voice, twirling the Inverted Spear of Heaven in his hand.

“So you’re admitting you’re the Killer!” Gojo yelled, pointing to the air.

“Nah,” Toji said, sucking his teeth. “Just a feeling I have. Can never say what that guy’s gonna do next.”

“Hrmph. Fine. Does she have any other skills besides sitting like a statue?” Gojo asked, giving you a frown. Toji leaned his head back and gave Gojo a glare – he wasn’t going to tolerate any disrespect towards you.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” Toji said softly, his words sharp as a knife. The room was silent for a moment before Gojo sighed loudly.

“Geez, fine. It’ll be easier if I hire her to do something rather than just say no to the Zen’in outright… she can –” For once, Toji thought he had a good idea.

“She can cook. You guys got a kitchen team?” Toji asked. Gojo shook his head.

“No, everyone’s on their own…but actually…that would work out great! We don’t have a chef and I have to order takeout all the time. Can she bake? Like cakes or cookies or brownies or scones? Is she any good?” Gojo asked. It was bugging Toji that Gojo was talking about you like you weren’t in the room, but he didn’t think you’d feel comfortable answering Gojo yourself. Toji wanted you to get some self confidence, but now probably wasn’t going to be the time.

“She’s fuckin’ great. Best food I ever ate,” Toji replied honestly. His wife had been the love of his life, but for all her wonderful traits, Toji had done the cooking for their household. After she passed, he didn’t want to spend his time in the kitchen, brought back too many memories. So Toji had been living on takeout until you showed up to feed his kid. He fucked devoured every single thing you’d ever made him. You were gonna make him fat, and he couldn’t wait.

“Great! She starts tomorrow,” Gojo said, reaching for the door again.

“You good with that Usagi?” Toji asked quietly. He didn’t really have any other solutions to the current problem so he hoped you agreed. If not, he’d figure something else out. Luckily, you nodded your head quickly.

“Wonderful, everything is set –” Gojo opened the door, clearly done with the conversation.

“She’s gonna train with you brats. And I’ll have to get my kid, too. He’ll be here with us,” Toji mentioned. He had thrown in that line about your training, but as long as you were here it would be a good opportunity. He sure didn’t know shit about cursed techniques, but these punks did. Whatever they taught you to do would be more than the clan ever would. 

“Sure, don’t care. And that kid looks just like you. Acts like you too,” Gojo said with a roll of his eyes. Toji gave a pleased grunt, nodding his head. Megumi was a downright prick when he wanted to be, and it sounded like he had been for Gojo. He’d get the kid a beer or something as thanks. 

“Might be good for him here. He’s gonna be a sorcerer. I think he’s gonna be the next Ten Shadows user,” Toji said. Gojo’s eyes flashed with interest momentarily.

“You really think so? Reeaaaally…ok, later!” Gojo said as he waved, his interest fading as his mind probably drifted back to his stupid boyfriend.

“What are you gonna pay us?” Toji asked, thinking for a moment. Gojo groaned, pausing as he opened the door and slumping over like a fucking worm.

“OHMYGOD does it matter? This is just so I don’t send Usagi back to the Zen’in –” Gojo said exasperatedly, his body halfway out the door.

“Course if fucking matters! Not all of us are millionaires –” Toji yelled back, his arm out in outrage. Toji noticed you cringed a little in his peripheral vision, making him regret the yell. Fucking Gojo.

“Billionaire, thank you very much. Fine, whatever. I don’t care about this anymore. I’ll pay you 30 million yen – it’s a third of what we agreed on and frankly I just want you to leave me alone. Ijichi will get you a contract or whatever – bye!” Gojo said happily, already walking down the hall before the door slammed shut. 

Toji leaned back in the chair and sighed. The conversation was over, but Toji didn’t feel too bad about how it turned out. The Gojo kid wasn’t the worst sorcerer he’d ever tangled with, that was for sure. The deal was pretty sweet, and Toji would have a chunk of change coming in. 

Of all the things Toji thought he would be in his life, he never thought a teacher was one of them.

Your POV

A few hours later, you were cleaning the rooms that had been assigned to you and Toji by Yaga. Apparently the plan Gojo had come up with was what was happening, and you and Toji would be temporary workers at the school. Yaga had assigned the two of you adjoining rooms, clearly meant for high school roommates. It was still a little intimate, but you didn’t mind. Now you would be able to help Megumi easily while also keeping to yourself. It wasn’t right that you had to keep depending on others, but you didn’t see any other way around it right now.

You swept Toji’s larger room once more, clearing it out in anticipation of his arrival. Really, you were happy to have something to do with your hands. Like always, having something to do kept you from overthinking. Or at least mitigated it. Toji had left to get Megumi and wouldn’t be back for a while longer, so in the meantime you wanted to be useful and clean the rooms. That way Toji could rest after his day. You couldn’t imagine how he kept going – finding you, fighting Gojo twice, then going back to get Megumi. Frankly, you were tired as well, but you pushed yourself to keep working. 

Naoya had been on your mind since the meeting with Yaga. It was only a matter of time before you had to go back to him. Toji had made it clear that he and Megumi wouldn’t be returning to the clan, but what else did you have? You couldn’t depend on him forever, he had his own life. You’d do anything to avoid going back to Naoya, but what alternative was there? You were still legally married to Naoya, so he held the reins to your life. Your time with Toji was like a vacation, or like a dream. But dreams inevitably ended and you’d be forced back into reality. 

Eventually Toji wouldn’t need you anymore and you’d have to go back to the Zen’in. Naoya would probably….probably….you shuddered as you forced that thought from your mind. Looking down, your hands were shaking again. Pathetic, you thought to yourself. 

Your mind drifted again to Toji, as it always did. Everything with him was confusing – he had been so emphatic about you staying with him, like he wanted to keep you with him personally. Your face heated as you thought about Toji calling you his woman, the way he’d picked you up so easily and carried you to safety, the way he calmed himself so you’d feel more comfortable. 

It was strange having someone in your life care about you, but it wasn’t unwelcome. No one had ever made you feel as safe and precious as Toji. He was strong and capable and sweet, in his own way. Not to mention, he had an undeniably attractive physique and presence. In your heart of hearts, you wished you had a different life, that you’d met Toji before you married Naoya and he had whisked you away from the Zen’in then. But if you had met Toji then, there would be no Megumi. And Megumi was from…. Toji’s wife.

Heat rose in your face for a different reason now, shame choking your throat. How could you think of a widower so callously? It wasn’t your place to wish he never had his wife or son! And for what, because he didn’t hit you and looked good in a tshirt? You didn’t know Toji’s feelings regarding his deceased wife, some people never remarried or ever had any other romantic relationships after the death of their spouse. Maybe Toji liked you as a person, but you were married and he wasn’t for you. End of story. You could wish for whatever you wanted in your delusional mind, but this was real life and you have to deal with it.

You shook your head and kept working. You had all the windows open in the early evening as you swept and dusted the rooms. No one had been living there for quite some time, the dust as thick as fallen snow on the floor. It seemed like there weren’t many students in the school, but it wasn’t like you were familiar. You hadn’t gone to any Jujutsu High School, just normal high school, so you weren’t sure what happened at places like these. The mattresses were also dusty, so you had them over the side of the balcony, swatting them as best you could. You were so absorbed in your task you didn’t notice someone in your peripheral vision.

“Hello again,” a cool voice intoned from behind you. You flinched and huddled into yourself out of reflex, immediately embarrassed of your reaction. It had been beyond humiliating when Toji aired all your dirty laundry in front of everyone, telling them what your life was like with the Zen’in. You understood why he did it, but you couldn’t bear the looks of pity you received. Except for Gojo, he had looked at you like you were an ant beneath his shoe. Now they would all think you were a weak, worthless speck of garbage.

“Oh, uh. Hello, Geto. How can I help you?” you asked, giving the young sorcerer a bow. Your pulse quickened – why was he here? You hadn’t minded Toji talking for you when you were in Yaga’s office, but he wasn’t here to do that for you again. The last time you talked to Geto was when he’d forced you to use your technique, and you’d been hoping to avoid him. Geto waved you off.

“I don’t need help with anything. I came to talk to you,” he explained. Geto was looking better – he was in  jujutsu uniform pants, a crisp white shirt, and his long hair bound in a bun style. Though you couldn’t help but notice a smattering of hickies and bites along his neck and chest. Gojo had found him then. You snapped out of your thoughts and gave him another small bow before setting down your tools.

“Of course, Geto. I am ready at your convenience,” you replied formally, giving him your full attention. He frowned at you and quirked an eyebrow, finding something in you lacking. Your heart sank with the familiar feeling – would you ever cease to be a disappointment? 

“Why do you act like that?” Geto asked, skewering you with his purple eyes. 

“L-like what?” you asked, taking an unsteady step backwards. He wasn’t cruel like Naoya, but your prior experiences with Geto hadn’t been wonderful either. Despite not being a clan leader, he sure had the demanding attitude down.

“Like a servant,” he replied. You pressed your lips together, clueless how to answer. The truth was, you were a servant to Naoya. Maybe even lower than that - servants got time off and wages. Instead, you were bound to Naoya forever. 

“Oh, I – uh, I – I’m sorry,” you apologized, unsure what else to say. Geto gave you another strange look, but didn’t say anything this time. 

“I came to apologize to you, actually,” Geto said after a heavy exhale, leaning against the railing. “I’m sorry I forced you to use your technique against your will. I shouldn’t have asked that of you.” You blinked a few times. A sorcerer apologizing to you?

“Oh, uhm. I didn’t, uhm, I didn’t mind,” you hedged, trying to get this over with as soon as possible.

“You most certainly did,” he said mildly. “And I am sorry for my actions,” he finished, giving you a deep bow. 

“Oh - uh, you don’t have to do that,” you said rushedly. “It didn’t hurt me or anything, so it doesn’t matter,” you said with a smile. Geto stood up, slouching once again against the railing. 

“It doesn’t matter that I made you do something you didn't want to do because you weren’t hurt?” Geto clarified, rephrasing your question. “Why wouldn’t it matter that I forced you to do something that you didn’t want to do?” he pressed. You closed your eyes – why couldn’t you ever say anything right? You tried to think of something to say but your mind was blank. What was the correct answer?

“I don’t - uhm - I don’t know. I’m sorry,” you finished, bowing to him again. Geto hummed but didn’t answer this time. He stood there for a few more moments in silence, watching you. Your eyes flicked back to the rooms as you fidgeted. You wanted him gone so you could be alone, not under his supervision. 

“Is there something else I can –”

“Using your technique the first few times is incredibly draining. And with the force of your final vision, I’m surprised you’re still standing,” Geto commented. You heard Naoya’s voice in the back of your mind, telling you that rest was only for those who deserved it, but you quashed it down. 

“I’ll rest later, I have to work now,” you assured him, picking up your broom again. You began sweeping once more, but Geto didn’t take the cue to leave. Instead, he put his elbows on the railing and leaned back. Oh great, you thought. You didn’t like having an audience when you cleaned, but it wasn’t like you could tell him to leave. 

Geto watched you silently for a few minutes as you worked. You tried to surreptitiously keep an eye on him as well, trying to gauge if he was leaving soon. Though, the longer he stood there, the more you noticed the darkening bruises on his neck. You shuddered as you remembered the searing pain of Naoya biting your own neck, the bites and bruises taking forever to fade. Gojo seemed to love Geto but…what if it wasn’t reciprocated? What if it wasn’t love but obsession? Geto was strong, but Gojo was on another level. If Geto wasn’t interested in the kind of relationship Gojo wanted, who would stop him?

You did have some experience being with the head (or future head) of a clan. You often wished someone would have supported you in your relationship with Naoya, perhaps you could be support for Geto. After all, it wasn’t a common position to be in, there were only 3 clan leaders. Would Geto think you were impertinent or rude if you talked about it? Or worse? You bit your lip in thought – it was a gamble to talk about such matters but if you could help him in any way, you would. 

“Ah, how was your, er - are you feeling alright?” you asked awkwardly. You weren’t sure exactly how to phrase what you wanted to – not only were you trying to avoid being crass but you didn’t want any slander to reach the ears of the Zen’in.

“Yes, Shoko healed me earlier,” he said, rubbing his neck idly. “Oh, are you talking about what Satoru did? Tch, I told him not to but he still marked me up,” Geto said with a scowl. “He’s so annoying,” Your eyebrows hiked – it still surprised you that Geto would say such things about Gojo publicly.

“Yes, uh, well. It uh…can be difficult to appeal to the Clan leaders, you know? They are wonderful but challenging in their own ways,” you said brightly, hoping Geto understood the true meaning behind your words. 

“What are you talking about?” Geto asked, his eyebrow hiked. You scrambled for a moment trying to think of another way to say what you wanted to without being too overt. 

“Oh, um. They’re great leaders and it’s an honor to serve them! But that comes with a lot of responsibility and stress on their shoulders, you know? So it’s our responsibility to take care of them, no matter what form that takes, right? Even if it’s difficult for us, you know? If they need to correct us harshly, we would deserve it for failing to meet their needs. But we could help each other be better, learn from each other,” you said, finishing with a sunny smile. Geto would have to understand what you were saying now. You’d heard lines like that from Naoya so many times, surely Gojo had said something similar to Geto.

“Are you… are you asking if Satoru abuses me?” Geto asked, cutting through your words like he had a scalpel. Geto’s eyes narrowed at you and your face crumpled, you were going to get in so much trouble.

“No, no, no! It’s not –” your hands were already up, waving back and forth in front of you to dispel that idea. 

“Gojo’s not like that. Yeah, he marked me up, but that’s - I assure you that I consented. He’s clingy right now because of the fights with Toji. Well, he’s always clingy, but between you and me, I don’t mind,” Geto said, tucking his loose hair behind his ear. 

“I’m sorry! I, um, I didn’t mean anything by it! I just – we’re both with clan leaders, you know? I was just being, um, wanting to –”

“You were going to help me if Gojo was abusive, right? That’s what you were saying. You were trying to relate to me. What would you have done? It’s not like you can even help yourself right now,” Geto asked coldly, giving you a once over. You blew out a breath and deflated. It seemed like you could never say anything right around Geto. All you had wanted to do was help, and he was throwing it back in your face. He was right, but that didn’t mean what he said didn’t hurt.

“‘M sorry,” you mumbled again. You wavered a little on your feet, your long day finally catching up with you.

“Whoa, hey. Sit down,” Geto ordered, reaching for you. He grabbed your upper arms as you swayed, and helped you down to the ground. “I’m gonna get Shoko –”

“No, please - please don’t get her. I’m just tired. I’ll be fine,” you whimpered, your head now pounding. If there was anyone you didn’t want to see you in a weak state – well, it was any of the students at Jujustu High, but particularly Geto. You didn’t want to bother Shoko and cause even more problems for everyone.

“Hrm. Fine, but I’m getting you water to drink. And if anything else happens, I am getting Shoko,” Geto said, already entering your room to get a glass. You thought you heard something about not fighting Toji again, but you couldn’t be sure. A moment later, Geto was in front of you, holding up a cold glass of water.

“Here. Drink,” he ordered. 

“Thank you,” you said,  taking it with trembling fingers. You drank greedily from the glass, draining the water rapidly. After a moment, you sighed and leaned your head back against the wall of the dormitory. Geto slid down on the wall, plopping down next to you on the ground. Your first instinct was to clean the spot he was sitting on, but you refrained.

“I didn’t mean to be rude,” Geto said, breaking the silence.

“I don’t mind. You’re not from a clan, are you?” you replied. Geto shook his head. He didn’t need to confirm what you already correctly guessed. Everyone knew everyone in the jujutsu world, and you’d never heard of a Geto clan. Besides, the fact that he’d gotten you a cup of water told you everything you needed to know.

“No. Normal monkey family,” he replied with a sigh. 

“Don’t call them that,” you chided him before you could bite your tongue. The Zen’in always called non-sorcerers monkeys, and you couldn’t stand it. “There’s nothing wrong with not being a sorcerer,” you said, running your finger over the rim of the glass.

“I used to think that too. That sorcerers were elite soldiers, meant to guard and protect the rest of society. But lately I’ve been feeling like – like maybe the world would be better if everyone was a jujutsu sorcerer, you know? We wouldn’t have to fight all the time, killing each other for nothing. Everyone would all be strong, there’d be no problems with curses,” he said wistfully, more to himself than to you. You gave him a tired smile.

“Now I know you’re not from the clans,” you said, turning the glass in your palm. 

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“Because almost everyone in the clans can use jujutsu, and that’s definitely not the case. There’s always problems and there’s always fighting. And might makes right in the clans. So if you’re not strong, well…” you trailed off with a shrug. Geto likely knew enough about your story to infer what you meant. 

“It’s funny, sometimes I wish I had been born outside the clans, to a normal family. Just the opposite of you,” you said. Geto scoffed and looked away.

“No, you don’t. Monk - normal people don’t understand. They can never understand. My parents gave me what I needed, sure. But they kept their distance from me, even when I was a small child. They were scared of me, of the power I wielded. I tried telling them about curses, about the things I saw, they never understood. Nothing I did was ever good or right, I was always blamed for strange or unusual happenings even if I had nothing to do with it. I didn’t feel any kind of lov – acceptance until I came here to Jujutsu High and met Gojo and Shoko,” he said, holding his chin on his palm.

“Hm. I’m sorry to hear that, Geto,” you said, sincere in your emotions. “Maybe we can change jujutsu society from the inside, make it a better place,” you said, trying to lighten the mood. Geto hummed but didn’t answer, continuing to look out at the setting sun. The two of you sat silently side by side as the clouds turned from orange and pink to purple.

“Whose cursed signature is that?” Geto asked suddenly, his face snapping to the east. “It can’t be Toji’s, so who –”

“Oh, it might be Megumi’s. I’m not advanced enough to tell, that’s just my guess since Toji was bringing him back. That means he’s gonna be here in a few moments. I’m sorry, I have to prepare his bed,” you said, slowly moving to stand up. Geto stood up faster and extended his hand to you. You looked at him warily for a moment, before putting your hand in his. Geto pulled you to your feet carefully before turning and giving you a small wave.

“See you on the training grounds,” Geto said, sauntering off into the night.

“Wh - no, I’m not – I’m cooking for everyone –” Geto turned and smiled back at you. You gulped – what had you gotten yourself into?

Geto POV

You were a strange woman, Geto thought as he moseyed back to Gojo’s rooms. The dorms were all supposed to be identical, but of course Gojo had his modified to be luxurious and decadent. Not that Geto minded, Satoru’s bed was way better than his own and the daily restocked fridge didn’t hurt either. 

Geto felt another buzzing in his pocket and pulled out his phone. Another missed call from Satoru. Pressing on the buttons, Suguru saw he had missed 11 phone calls from Satoru in the half an hour he’d been gone. Satoru had also left 8 text messages, and sent one low quality picture. Holy hell, maybe he did have to talk to Satoru about his clinginess, Geto thought as he clicked through them. Geto was pleased to be making his way back to Satoru, but his mind turned to you once again as he walked in the cool night.

What was your deal exactly?

Suguru didn't really know what to make of you. When he first met you, he thought you were just a weak sorcerer, some Zen’in who needed help. Your cursed technique was interesting, but ultimately hadn’t been helpful in the short term. And he really didn’t understand why had someone from a clan not been able to use their technique. Surely they would teach you, right? You clearly had some ability, wouldn’t it be better to develop it, even if it wasn’t useful for fighting?

Though, truthfully, he hadn’t met a Zen’in before. Gojo sometimes complained about the Zen’in after the clans met, bitching about the other two clans as well as his own. Geto listened as Satoru yapped – Gojo needed to reach a certain amount of complaining before he could let anything go – but Geto hadn’t expected anything so brutal. Sure, Gojo had told him they were dickheads, stuck in the past, ugly, and losers, but he said that about almost everyone in jujutsu society. 

It had surprised Suguru when you offered to help him, so much so that he’d been a little more hostile than he intended. Your words were vague, but he had understood what you were getting at. Your offer was sweet but really, what were you going to do for him? You were married to Naoya, sure, but Geto was with Gojo Satoru, the six eyes and limitless user who now also apparently had mastered cursed technique reversal and RCT. What exactly would you have been able to do to help Geto if Satoru was evil? You had extended an offer of pure kindness, and frankly, he didn’t know if he would have made the same if he was in your shoes.

Geto sighed as he reached Satoru’s dormitory, rolling his head on his shoulders. Shoko had healed him but holy fuck had Toji done a number on his body. Two days later and he still wasn’t completely healed. Shoko said the scar would likely be there forever, but it was better than being dead. Geto had no fond feelings for Toji, but maybe he was trying to do the right thing by defending you. Suguru didn’t know what the relationship between the two of you was beyond clanmates, but that wasn’t his business either.  

Geto hoped you stuck around. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have one more nice person in the jujutsu world. He had liked talking to you about the clans, and had even opened up a little about his inner thoughts. Geto was usually tight-lipped but something in you made him want to talk through some of his worries. The thoughts had been coming more and more frequently lately, unbidden but constantly arising.

“SUGURU! GET YOUR BUTT IN HERE! I MISS YOU!” Gojo yelled, his head sticking outside the open window. Geto sighed even as his heart skipped a beat. 

“I WAS GONE FOR HALF AN HOUR!” he retorted, climbing the stairs.

“SHUT UP BOTH OF YOU! YOU’RE FUCKING ANNOYING!” Shoko yelled from her own room. Geto smiled as he made his way to his impatient boyfriend, who was already descending down the stairs to meet him.

A/N:

Transition chapter! As always, just go with it. I know Usagi is still p pathetic but realistically she would be for a while, dw we’re gonna fix her too. For her, it’s been like 3 days since Naoya almost killed her -- and then all that other stuff happened. IDK I don't like when characters super rapidly heal from their trauma. So she's going through it <3 Geto is already having Thoughts, but hasn’t solidified them yet. He’s OOC but I’m having fun. WE ARE GETTING TO THE ROMANCE IT WILL BE SOON THEY GOTTA GET THERE. THEY WOULD TAKE TIME I PROMISE THEY WILL GET TOGETHER.

Taking off your necklace had brought back memories, and mixed emotions along with it. He hadn’t wanted you to wear a slave collar either, but there was no mincing words about its purpose. Shamrock hadn’t worn his matching necklace for fear that you’d get the wrong idea, but it seemed like no matter what he did he only drove you away further. He remembered the joy with which he first received the necklace, how proud he was to have something fine to give you. He often wanted to spoil you but there weren’t a lot of ways to give you nicer treatment without raising suspicion from Father. 

What was he to tell you about the necklace? He couldn’t lie to you, that would break the foundation of the tiny relationship that he had with you. But every truth was so painful in broad daylight, nothing like it had been on Marie Geoise. Shamrock hoped he was making the right decision by forcing you to spend time with him every day. There wasn’t a way around it, he didn’t think you’d spend time with him willingly otherwise. His hand continued to be forced and he was fucking sick of it. 

Even with his small private lapse, Shamrock was thankful for his control over his emotions while you were with him. When you had panicked, so had he. He hadn’t seen you that scared in a very long time, and it wasn’t something he wished to ever see again. His first impulse had been to hold you closely and help you regulate your breathing like he had so long ago. But that wasn’t possible, and not only because he didn’t want Dragon revoking Shamrock’s access to you. You weren’t ready for that kind of touch yet, and especially not from him. He knew that for a fact, he’d been watching you.

Shamrock had silently been observing you going about your day when he wasn’t with you. After all, Dragon had stipulated that he could only spend an hour in your company per day, not that Shamrock couldn’t watch you when he wasn’t with you. It was almost a role reversal from your earlier years – now he was the one watching silently from the shadows, observing your every move.

Shamrock could admit to himself that he was jealous of the affection you showed to others. He watched you joke with Ginny and uptight Kuma (he knew that Buccaneer was up to something), he watched you laugh with Iva, and he even watched you bicker with Shanks. You were friends to many, friendly to all, and yet…no one really touched you. There were no friendly hugs, no high fives, not even a casual hand holding. You were connected to so many, and yet still alone. Shamrock didn’t presume to think that it was because you were waiting for him, but he wondered if the loneliness pricked at you like it did to him. Did it keep you up at night?

Shamrock stood upright, no longer able to sit and relax. His blood was pumping and his angry energy needed to be directed somewhere. Shamrock flung open the door to the library and strode down the hallways of whatever decrepit building he was in. He wasn’t watching where he was walking, his mind completely focused on his interactions with you. His body and mind were both in motion, though they were disjointed. 

Eventually Shamrock looked up and found himself in front of Shanks’ door. Shamrock frowned, he hadn’t meant to meet with his brother. Shanks would undoubtedly annoy him at this juncture and he was in no mood for his brother’s foolery. Shamrock scowled and turned, but the door opened before he could make a quick getaway.

“Shammy! How was your–”

“I already warned you. Do not call me that,” Shamrock hissed, his mood already souring even further. Shanks gave Shamrock a quick once over and frowned.

“Uh oh. Not good then. Come on in, it’s just me here,” Shanks offered, pushing the door to his room open wide. 

“I am in no mood,” Shamrock stated plainly. His own room was down the hall but Shamrock wasn’t in the mood for resting either. He wanted to destroy something, but that didn’t seem a viable option on Baltigo. Shamrock would have to find something else to quell his emotional turmoil.

“C’mon, you can tell me about it. I got strong booze too. Stole it from Beckman,” he said proudly with a waggle of his eyebrows. Now that was appealing. 

“Are you not the Captain? Can you not just demand the alcohol?” Shamrock asked, pushing his way into the room. Sure he had wine before but a stiff drink would aid tremendously in the moment.

“Course I could. But it’s his, you can’t take things that belong to other people. C’mon, we’ve talked about this,” Shanks reprimanded his brother.

“You did take what belongs to Beckman,” Shamrock pointed out.

“Yeah, but that’s different than demanding it. Everyone knows booze tastes better when it’s stolen, duh,” Shanks scoffed with a roll of his eyes. Shamrock sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Only the prospect of Beckman’s alcohol made this experience worth continuing. Shanks crossed the small, clean room over to the singular dresser. On top there was a large bottle of dark looking alcohol and one cup. Shanks poured a generous amount and brought the cup over.

“So what went wrong?” Shanks prompted, handing the glass over to his brother. Shamrock sat on the untidy bed, rubbing his forehead before reaching for the glass. 

“Nothing,” he said tersely before taking a sip. Thank god for Beckman, Shamrock thought to himself. The liquor was actually tolerable for once rather than the disinfectant that Shanks usually had on hand. 

“If nothing went wrong you wouldn’t be sitting here, looking like you lost a limb,” Shanks replied, plopping down next to Shamrock. Shamrock drank again.

“Too soon?” Shanks asked, pushing his hair off his forehead. 

“I don’t care about my arm. That’s done and gone,” he replied, scoffing as Shanks pried the glass out of his hand.

“Hey! Share! We only have one cup,” Shanks griped before gulping back some of the liquor. Shamrock stood and walked over to the dresser, opting to grab the bottle instead.

“So what happened? Can’t be that bad,” Shanks offered as Shamrock leaned against the dresser.

“Clover ran away at the end of our time together,” Shamrock answered, swirling the liquor in the bottle.

“Ouch. Any idea why?” Shanks asked, giving his brother a sympathetic look.

“I took off the necklace she wears, at her behest.”

“OK, that doesn’t sound too–”

“After I told her only I was able to remove it and it was her former slave collar,” Shamrock answered in full. Shanks hit his forehead with the heel of his hand.

“Why would you lead with that?!” Shanks asked, throwing his arm in the air.

“I didn’t,” Shamrock hissed back before taking another swig. “I asked her other questions first, obviously. That was where the conversation took us.”

“What did you ask her?” Shanks wondered, giving his brother a strange look.

“Rather surface level questions. Her favorite color, her favorite book, things of that nature,” Shamrock replied.

“Oh my fucking – why?! Why would you ask that?!” Shanks implored, his mouth hanging open. 

“Oh, my mistake. Should I have asked her if she remembered watching me slaughtering her fellow slaves on the training grounds? If she remembers those who sought to kill her all because she was kind towards me? The time I spit in her face? If she regrets ever meeting me? If she blames me for abandoning her to Dracule and her consequent abduction by Crocodile?” Shamrock asked acerbically.

“I guess not…you spit in her face…?” Shanks asked with his eyebrows hiked. Shamrock ignored the comment, already in his feelings. 

“I asked some bland questions to get the conversation flowing. I did want to know the answers, though. I want to know everything about her, but she is not interested in sharing at the moment,” Shamrock answered quietly. Shanks was thankfully silent for a moment, before snapping his fingers and pointing a finger out the window. 

“Oh, speaking of Mihawk, he’s gonna be here soon. Like, probably tomorrow,” Shanks stated matter-of-factly.

“How do you know? Do you have his contact? His vivre paper?” Shamrock replied, cocking a brow. Even with all his Celestial Dragon connections, Dracule was a challenge to locate.

“No. I’ve had a persistent boner for about a day, pointing in his direction. It's never been wrong before –”

“Shut. Up.” Shamrock said, closing his eyes for a moment. Though, if Shanks was correct it was good information to know Mihawk was drawing nearer. He had much to…discuss with the swordsman. And then he could relay the information to you at tomorrow’s meeting, giving you a heads up about the likely confrontation. Though the method of delivery was beyond disgusting, the information was hopefully correct.

“Did you at least open your shirt like I told you to?” Shanks asked, pointing to his own, which had one button done at his navel.

“I did,” Shamrock answered with pursed lips.

“Did it help?” Shanks asked with a raised eyebrow. Shamrock took a large swig from the bottle.

“She looked,” he replied tersely. Shanks laughed and clapped his hands once.

“Told you! Everyone loves an open shirt,” Shanks said, nodding to himself. Shamrock didn’t mind talking to Shanks at this juncture, but he could endure no more. He didn’t want Shanks’ ribbing or merriment, he wanted to stew in his failure.

“Leave me to my devices,” Shamrock spat back.

“You’re in my room!” Shanks replied incredulously, pushing his stupid straw hat off his head. 

“I did not ask for your advice!” Shamrock spat at his brother. Shanks frowned and set his cup on the floor. Shanks slowly advanced towards Shamrock, his ire fully on display. Shamrock returned Shanks’ look with a glare of his own – he was not going to be intimidated by his younger brother. Shamrock drew himself up to his full height, which matched his brother’s exactly. Shamrock braced for a fight, some kind of lowly brawl most likely.

But Shamrock’s eyes went wide as Shanks didn’t try to injure him – but wrapped his arms around his brother’s neck, pulling Shamrock in for a tight hug. Shamrock stiffened, blinking several times in rapid succession as Shanks continued the embrace. What in the world was happening?

“I’m sorry, Shamrock. I know this is hard for you,” Shanks said softly, still gripping Shamrock. Shamrock’s first instinct was to push Shanks away, but the warmth of his brother combined with his kind words was rather… comforting. 

“And I know Clover isn’t making this any easier on you because she doesn’t know the whole story. Hell, I don’t know the whole story. If you ever feel like sharing, you can always talk to me,” Shanks said, giving his brother an even tighter embrace for a moment before easing up. Shamrock didn’t know what to do – he’d never been hugged by a family member. He settled on loosely wrapping his arm around Shanks, tapping his brother’s shoulder with his fingertips. Is that what was supposed to be done?

“Until then, I’m here for you. I thought maybe you’d want to talk and laugh, but I don’t think you’re that kinda guy right now,” Shanks murmured, before releasing Shamrock from his hold. Shanks had a tender expression on his face, almost like the one he’d worn when they had met for the first time. When Shamrock saw it for the first time, he immediately felt the need to shatter the mood, to make Shanks feel as low as Shamrock felt him to be. 

But now?

“Yes, hrm….very well, Shanks,” Shamrock said, giving his brother a curt bow. Shamrock seldom felt the need to bow in his former life, and the fact that he was doing so was a sign of tremendous respect. He hopes Shanks understood the gesture. Shanks beamed back at his brother, a smile Shamrock was sure would never grace his own face.

“Awww. You never call me by my name!” Shanks said, reaching over to pinch Shamrock’s cheek. Shamrock slapped his hand away with a scoff.

“Can’t blame a guy for trying. Anyway, I think you should tell her how you really feel. I’d say try to be less rigid, less formal. It might help,” Shanks suggested.

“Less myself then?” Shamrock inquired wryly. Shanks shook his head.

“No, no. Not that. Just less…controlled. Let her see how you’re feeling, Clover might respond in kind. If she knows you’re being vulnerable, she might be more open herself,” Shanks continued. Shamrock considered the unsolicited advice. Vulnerable wasn’t something he had ever been before. Such a weakness got you killed in Marie Geosie. 

“I’ll try.”

Your POV

You approached Shamrock as he sat by the cliff, the cool sea breeze wafting gently through his long red hair. For once he looked relaxed, his shoulders sloped elegantly as he lay on his side. Normally he looked like he was posing when you met, but now he seemed to be in true repose. One of his long legs was stretched out as he stretched out leaning on his elbow. He still looked incredible, no matter what you thought about him. Even now, his long fingers toyed with a blade of grass, making him look effortlessly sexy. Damn it.

Shamrock didn’t turn around with your approach, but you guessed he knew you were coming. If he was Shanks’ equal, it was likely that he had observation and armament haki. Not only that, but Titus bounded ahead of you, slinking underneath Shamrock’s arm to get more pets. Clearly, Titus had a positive recollection of Shamrock. You, of course, didn’t remember why. Maybe you’d ask about Titus today, start on neutral ground.

You were a little more composed this afternoon than you had been on the previous day. The conversation you had around the necklace had rattled you for hours. You couldn’t even look at it once you got back to your room, putting it in your top drawer. There was some thought in your mind about getting rid of it entirely, but that was short lived. It had brought you comfort before you knew what it was, and frankly, it was worth a lot of money. You might want to sell it one day – without telling the buyer that only Shamrock could unlock it. 

But once you calmed down, you’d thought endlessly about Shamrock. You weren’t fond of him by any means, but some of the information he’d relayed the previous day had given you pause. It hadn’t occurred to you that Shamrock wasn’t the one to buy you, or that he didn’t want you. You hadn’t really thought about anything beyond yourself, how everything had happened to you. Shamrock might be a shitty Celestial Dragon, but maybe not everything had been under his control either.

Clearly, some kind of relationship had transpired between you after that time, and you needed to find out what it was. You didn’t have to like Shamrock, but maybe you could be a little more careful with the way you talked to him. Something had happened between the time that you were acquired for him and the time you woke up on Kuraigana. And only Shamrock could tell you what that was.

“Hey Shamrock,” you said, treading on the soft grass. He leaned his head back and gave you a small smile as he scratched Titus’ ears. Shamrock looked tired, his face drawn like he hadn’t slept all night. Not that you cared, but it was a change from his normally perfect face.

“Good afternoon, Clover,” he responded, picking his head back up to stare at the cliffs. He wasn’t ignoring you, but he also wasn’t laser focused on you like he had been. It was a welcome change to not feel like you were being observed, but you weren’t sure what spurred it. Maybe Shamrock was deeper than you gave him credit for. Or maybe he was just trying his luck at a different angle. He sat up, his rumpled open shirt only adding to his allure. Double damn it.

You sat down near him, sitting with your legs crossed as you faced the same direction. It was quiet between you, the sounds of waves crashing against the rocky coast coming in every few seconds. But unlike two days prior, you weren’t seething or testing him. Instead the silence was almost pleasant. Still, it was time to get things moving.

“You’re wasting your time with me,” you pointed out, plucking a blade of grass from the ground.

“No time with you is wasted. And I thought I was not to chat with you, per your own request,” he said mildly, flicking his hair off his shoulder. You shrugged, ripping the blade of grass into two.

“I thought we could ask each other questions again,” you said, looking at him out of the corner of your eye. Your nose wrinkled as you noticed a gem twinkling on a chain about his neck.

“Is that mine?” you asked, pointing to his neck. “Did you go in my room!?” you exclaimed. If he had, any goodwill that you had been harboring towards Shamrock would go out the window, as Shamrock himself would be tossed off the cliff. Shamrock shook his head.

“It seems you are starting with the questions –”

“Hey, that wasn’t a question –”

“It was. It was two, actually. Would you like the answer?”

“Now that’s one question for you,” you stated petulantly, crossing your arms. Shamrock’s eyes crinkled at the corners slightly. Was he…happy?

“You are still in my debt. But I will answer,” he replied, the small smile returning. You rolled your eyes but didn’t react.

“No, I did not enter your room. This is my necklace. I had a matching set made, though mine is not enchanted,” he said, tugging on the chain for a moment.

“I thought you said it was a slave collar,” you said, squinting at the gem. Now that you looked closely, it wasn’t exactly the same. His gem was larger, the chain longer. 

“Mhm. Yes, of sorts. A collar of devotion,” he replied enigmatically. You flushed at his words, the implication quite strong. An urge rose to run away, to rid yourself of this man, but you squashed it. You were a woman of your word, and you told Dragon that you’d be sitting with Shamrock for an hour. So you’d sit no matter how much Shamrock made you squirm.

“Why’d you wear it now?” you asked, trying to shift the subject slightly.

“That’s three questions. Let me ask one first,” Shamrock requested, turning to face you. You swallowed thickly, unsure what he was going to ask. He had asked rather surface level questions the previous day, for which you were thankful, but you weren’t sure that was going to be the case today.

“Did you suffer on Kuraigana?” he asked, his heavily bagged eyes poring over you. You shook your head.

“No. Kuraigana was lonely, but I did not suffer. I had everything that I needed to survive,” you replied honestly. You downplayed how depressing and lifeless it was there, but that wasn’t what he was really asking. Shamrock nodded his head slightly, as if steadying himself with your answer.

“Dracule is likely to reach Baltigo tomorrow,” Shamrock stated. A scowl crossed your lips – you hadn’t forgotten how Mihawk had betrayed you. He’d known all along where you were from and he had lied to your face, along with Shanks. Part of you wanted to take the high road and ignore Mihawk completely, but the low road looked ever so appealing as well. 

“How do you know?” you asked, scrunching your nose. Mihawk was notoriously difficult to track, how did Shamrock have such private information? Shamrock frowned and rolled his eyes.

“Shanks told me. I do not know how he knows. No more questions about Dracule,” he said in a huff. You quirked an eyebrow as Shamrock adjusted his position. That was strange.

“So why did you wear the necklace today?” you repeated. There was something special about the necklace, you were sure of it. Hopefully this wouldn’t be as deep of a subject as the previous one. 

“It contains a select few of your memories. I thought you might want to see them,” he explained, turning the chain so the latch was in the front. You gasped, your hand covering your mouth. You absently got on your knees and turned to face him completely.

“Can I – oh my god,” you said, your heart pattering.Your vision was exclusively on his open chest, on the gem that might have answers you’d been so desperately seeking. Shamrock held up his hand, as if to give you pause.

“The memories are from your perspective, but I am in them,” Shamrock said, voice steady as ever. “I would like to make clear a few facets of our relationship prior to you viewing them. May we do away with the question format for the time being?” he asked. You nodded fervently, eager to see what had been taken from you.

“What was our relationship?” you asked, trying to get at the heart of the matter. Shamrock took a deep breath, exhaling through his nose.

“As I said, you were my slave. You were bought for me as a personal attendant of sorts when we were both children. Soon thereafter you became my tutor –”

“Tutor? In what? Is that why I can read?” you asked incredulously. “Sorry, please keep going.” Shamrock hummed but didn’t chide you. 

“You tutored me in mathematics, primarily. You’re much quicker and smarter than I in such matters,” he said, his eyes sliding over to you. “And no, that is not why you are literate. Mathematics came easily to you. I taught you to read myself,” Shamrock said, his eyes staring off into the distance.

“You’re lying. No Celestial Dragon would teach a slave to read,” you hissed, scared that Shamrock wasn’t telling the truth. How could he be? Everyone knew Dragons kept their slaves illiterate.

“I am not. I have never once lied to you,” Shamrock reminded you. “I taught you using the same book you brought from Kuraigana.” You slumped over, your head in your hands as tears welled in your eyes. This was a lot of information to take in. Was everything in your life tied to Shamrock? Even the book you so loved was from your past with Shamrock. Was there any part of yourself that was separate, that was just your own?

“Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?” you whispered. Your head was pounding and you wanted to lay down, but even more you wanted information. Shamrock was quiet for a few moments, watching the clouds above.

“We were very close for a very long time. I cared for you deeply, as much as a monster like me is able to care for another. I want…I want a relationship with you again. No matter the form it takes,” he said simply.

“I’m not that person anymore!” you yelled, tears pricking at your eyes. “The person you knew then is gone and she’s never coming back! I won’t – I can’t go back to that!” you screamed as a tear ran down your cheek.

“I wouldn’t want you to. You are free now, a new life ahead of you. We are free now,” Shamrock said lightly, touching the stump of his arm.

“So why can’t you leave m-me b-be?!” you stuttered, your tears falling freely now. You swiped at them angrily, upset with yourself. Upset at Shamrock. Upset at Dragon. Upset at the world for forcing this reality on you.

“It is a selfish desire to know you once more. And I am a selfish man.” Shamrock said simply. You hadn’t planned on bolting again, but this was too much. You scrambled to your feet, ready to tell Dragon what Shamrock said, how twisted and ugly he was. You never wanted to see this vile, disgusting, narcissistic…

“Please,” Shamrock whispered, grabbing your hand with his larger one. Your head whipped to him, ready to scream at him once more. But now Shamrock was on his knees before you, one of the strongest men in the world bowing to you in supplication. You looked at him, unsure what was happening. Was this the same haughty Shamrock as moments before? The face he made was like Shamrock in your bedroom memory -- tender, loving, reverent. Which was the real Shamrock?

“Please, Clover. Please listen to me. I cannot lose you again, please,” he begged, his voice cracking. A tear ran down his own cheek as he spoke, his cool facade finally cracking. Shamrock wasn’t to touch you, yet you didn’t remove your hand from his own. You were mesmerized by his plain words, his simple prayer slipping from his lips.

“I cannot – there is so much that happened between us. Please give me the chance to explain it all. I would have you in my life, Clover, in any way I can manage it. Hate me if you wish, do with me as you please. I will be your servant, your slave, your dog, whatever you desire. No matter what you do, I cannot stray from you. I am nothing without you.”

Notes:

Yes, Shammy is OOC but cmon it’s fun. Who doesn't want Shamrock on his knees??

You jolted back from him, unsure where you were or who he was. Your sudden movement had you grabbing your forehead in pain. Which in turn had you grabbing your shoulder in pain. Somehow you’d acquired a killer headache (and maybe a broken clavicle) by getting to…wherever you were. Had this person caused it? You struggled to sit up, your back now against the rough bark of the tree behind you.

But beyond your aches and pains, what really caught your attention was the man himself. He was far more beautiful than any other person you’d ever seen. His brilliantly white hair nearly sparkled in the sun, under which his eyes were hidden behind black cloth. His alabaster skin was completely unblemished, like a perfect marble statute. His clothes were basic – he wore a white frilly long sleeve shirt with a black vest and black pants – but exceedingly well tailored, like they were bespoke. Cluing you in to the fact that he was not human, he had long, pointed ears. He was gorgeous beyond compare, like moonlight reflecting off a placid lake on an early summer evening. He looked like a fantasy, an ethereal being not of this world.

But despite his overwhelming beauty, his very nature gave you pause. Something was not quite right with him, his perfection almost eerie. It was like there was a veneer of beauty under which something more sinister lurked, which had the hair rising on the back of your neck. Your gut told you this was no ordinary beautiful man, he was a predator.

And you had the distinct feeling you were his prey.

“You must have come through the veil during Beltane. But why?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. He still was staring down at you despite his eyes being hidden. He crouched down to consider you closely, looking you over intently. You didn’t know how he saw from behind the blindfold, and you were too nervous to ask. He didn’t say anything, but based on his frown, you suspected he found you wanting. Now closer to him, you could smell him a bit, a light floral scent hitting your nose. No, it wasn’t only flowers, you thought. He also smelled like the sky somehow – the sun and air combining to make a unique smell. 

After a moment, he reached forward to touch you with his index finger. Since it was unexpected, you flinched back. Instead of apologizing, your reaction made him laugh. The light sound sent shivers down your spine, the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end.  

“It seems humans have changed little in the hundreds of years since I’ve last seen one. Still scared little mice, still stinky, still ugly,” he said, his eyes flashing in mirth. Your mouth dropped open in outrage, and you were going to retort but he continued talking. Something about the way he spoke made you think that he was used to people listening. Er, not people…whatever he was.

“Can you speak?” he asked, standing up and clapping his hands twice. “At least say something instead of staring at me so rudely,” he scoffed, moving to lean against the tree. 

“I c-can,” you rasped, your voice thick and croaky. You wished you had water, but there wasn’t anything around you except the lovely forest.

“Tch, such an unpleasant voice,” he said, though his tone was light. You narrowed your eyes at the insult, but didn’t say anything. He smiled wider. It was difficult getting a reading on this being, you weren’t sure where you stood with him and it would probably be better not to piss him off.

“I’m sorry, but where am I?” you asked, saying the first question on the top of your mind. 

“Why, you’re in the realm of the Seelie! That should be obvious, no?” he replied, his smile turning into a frown. “Have humans really forgotten everything about the Fae?” Your eyes widened – you were in the fae realm? Fae were real? Clearly you were with someone new, in a new setting, and your old life was nowhere to be seen. 

You tried to synthesize the new information as quickly as possible. For now, you would accept what he told you and freak out in private later.  Hopefully this was all an elaborate dream, but you doubted that was the case based on the pain radiating down your arm. You’d seen enough clips of isekai anime to know that you were somewhere else and denying it would cause more harm than good. It would probably be better to try and suss things out rather than admit you were completely lost and confused.

“You’re a fairy?” you asked, your eyes flicking over his form. But then where were his wings?… you gasped as a moment later, his face was inches from yours. Suddenly all the humor of moments prior sucked out of the air as he held you pinned with only a look. He wasn’t touching you, wasn’t even breathing on you, but his presence had you immobilized all the same. 

“Never call us fairies,” he hissed. His presence felt heavy, like he was pressing on you from every angle despite him not touching you. You didn’t know what fae magic was like, but if this was an example, you were completely screwed in terms of strength. You would do anything to avoid being under his gaze like this – and he was doing this all with his eyes covered. 

“I’m sorry! I didn’t know!” you cried out, holding your shoulder with one hand. The pressure was hurting you even more than adjusting your shoulder did. He regarded you coolly, like he was contemplating your murder in his mind. A moment later you sagged against the tree as he released you; you hadn’t even seen him move. He crossed his arms, his mouth now turned into a pout.

“What do you know about the Fae?” he asked icily, drumming his fingers on his arms. You licked your lips and thought hard. Outside of general ren-faire based knowledge, you really didn’t know much. Sure, you saw one of the Lord of the Rings movies – but you’d fallen asleep halfway through. And you’d bought the Booktok fantasy book your friends had recommended, but you hadn’t actually read it yet. Even if you had consumed a lot of fantasy, you weren’t sure what was true and what wasn’t.

“I’m not sure I know anything,” you hedged, trying to take the safest route. You didn’t want him hurting you again, even if the damage had been slight. Maybe he would take pity on you and tell you what you needed to know. His toothy smile returned, a cheshire grin spreading across his face.

“Wonderful. I’ll be happy to tell you anything you wish to know. I am Prince Gojo of the Seelie Court. Please, do give me your name?” he asked, his tone much more respectful than it had been moments prior. You narrowed your eyes. There was something afoot, you were sure of it. The shift alone gave you pause, but there was something else gnawing at your mind. Wasn’t there something about the fae and names? Names being power or something like that? Or like bonding maybe? There was something about names, but you couldn’t quite place what it was. You shifted a moment, trying to think before answering.

“Some people call me, um…Ivy,” you said, looking behind him at a clearing. It was a little stupid to pick the first thing you saw, but some animal part of your brain was telling you not to share your real name. Besides, your mom had called you that once or twice when you were younger, given your proclivity to climb trees. So it wasn’t a complete lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth. Prince Gojo frowned at your words as he smacked his lips.

“No, that’s not quite right. Do give me your real name?” he insisted, giving you a more genuine smile. Or, you guessed it was his approximation of one since he was doubling down.

“That’s what people call me,” you asserted. No matter if he squished you again, you wouldn’t be giving him your real name. There was something about it, and you weren’t going to give up the little power you had in this new world. Prince Gojo scowled for a moment before allowing the harsh expression to slip off his face. 

“Well, time to go!” he said cheerfully.

“Where are we going?” you asked, looking around you. There didn’t seem to be anything but forest all around. Gojo threw back his head and laughed loudly, like you had told a great joke.

“Human impertinence never ceases to amaze me. We aren’t going anywhere. I’m going back to my court and castle, and you’re going to the afterlife!” he said, still chortling to himself. 

“I’m going back to where I’m from?” you asked, your brows hitched in confusion. 

“Ha! No, no. You’re quite funny, though,” he said, his white hair waving softly in the wind. “The magic between our worlds is too strong right now for you to successfully pass through the veil. I mean, you could try but you’d certainly die. You would have to wait for Samhain, when the veil is thin again, to try and go through. But that wouldn’t be for some time, given that Beltane was last night. Now the Seelie court is in full power. Samhain is next and it’s when the veil is thinnest for the Unseelie, so you’d have to convince Geto to let you through,” he explained. You didn’t quite catch the meaning of everything he was saying, but it was clear you couldn’t go home the way you came.

“But that doesn't matter. Humans aren't allowed in this realm. I shall have to dispose of you,” he said, shrugging a shoulder like it was nothing to him. Your mouth popped open in shock – he was casually planning to kill you? You scrambled back, your fingers and feet scrabbling against the forest floor. A small ball of blue was now pulsing in front of his finger, like a lazer trained on you.

“Though…you are somewhat amusing. And I’m desperately bored,” he mused, the ball quickly vanishing into nothingness. Whatever magic he had was strong, though you supposed that was why he was the Prince of the realm. Sweat was dripping down your back, his flip flopping about your death was doing a number on your nerves.

“Maybe it would be funny to surprise Geto with you. The great Prince of the Unseelie Court presented with a human,” Gojo said, tapping his chin. Your eyebrows hitched together – was he saying you’d be a gift? 

“That would be entertaining. If he kills you or not, it will be interesting for me either way. Yes, I’m going to bring you back. I can always kill you later, but I can’t unkill you,” he said decisively, nodding to himself. You gulped – the way Prince Gojo was casually alluding to your demise was freaking you out. And you weren’t sure Prince Geto was going to be any better if he was friends with Gojo. He looked down at you expectantly.

“Now as I already said, we’re going. Up,” Prince Gojo ordered you, like a dog. You did not point out that he had laughed and he was going to kill you the previous time you thought you were going somewhere. You struggled to your knees and pushed yourself to stand. Your shoulder was radiating hot pain, making you grimace as you held the pulsing joint. Whatever had happened in the veil had seriously hurt you.

Prince Gojo did not wait for you any longer before he began walking off. You stumbled and ran to catch up to him, afraid to fall behind. His long legs carried him faster than your own could, even without the excruciating pain in your torso. You hoped the castle was nearby, because you weren’t going to make it far with this kind of pain. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Prince Gojo asked, wrinkling his nose. “Why are you walking so strangely? Surely humans haven’t changed that much in recent years.”

“My shoulder’s messed up,” you said simply, tapping at the affected area. Prince Gojo stopped walking so suddenly that you nearly bumped into him. Some kind of barrier kept you from actually making contact with him, but you couldn’t see anything around him. Did the Fae have forcefields?

“Would you like for me to heal that for you?” Prince Gojo offered, pointing to your shoulder. You looked at him skeptically, but really, what other choices did you have? It was either Gojo or you spent however long until Prince Geto killed you grinding your teeth to keep from crying out. 

“Yeah,” you agreed lamely. Prince Gojo smiled wickedly before he extended his hand towards you, and a powerful surge of energy engulfed your body. Within seconds, your shoulder was healed. You exhaled deeply, the aching pain no longer bothering you at all. You weren’t sure if the power was exclusive to Gojo or was available to all Fae, but you were thankful. Going from seriously injured to completely healed was a heady feeling, your life improving within seconds.

“Thank you so much, Prince Gojo,” you exclaimed, moving your arm in a circle to stretch it. 

“You are welcome. And really, Prince Gojo is my title. If you ever need anything, you can call me Satoru.” You nodded, unsure what to do with this information. If he was royalty, wouldn’t you still need to call him by his title?

As your hand came up in front of your face, you noticed a shiny silver bracelet encircling your wrist. On the bracelet was a bright blue bead, almost glowing in the daylight. You definitely hadn’t been wearing this bracelet before now, did it come with being in the Fae realm?

“Where did this…what is this?” you asked, spinning the bead on the bracelet. The bead looked nearly identical to the little blue ball of magic he’d nearly ended your life with earlier. As you looked closer, you saw there were words inscribed on the outside in faint writing, but you couldn’t read what it said.

“I am feeling most kind today,” Prince Gojo began, his fingertips touching his chest with a flourish. “Not only did I spare your miserable life for the time being, but I gave you a physical reminder of the favor you owe me. Humans have weak memories, so I thought this would help. Do you like it?” he asked with a haughty look. 

“I do like it, but...favor? What favor?” you asked incredulously. Another bead suddenly appeared next to the first one, the two clinking lightly together.

“Now it’s two favors. I healed your arm for you, and gave you the bracelet. Surely you wouldn’t take my kindness as benevolence? A favor comes at the price of another. And really, I could have had you for four by now, but like I said, I'm feeling kind,” he explained with a smirk on his face. Your face drained of color as you looked at your wrist.

“Thank you,” you said dryly, turning the bracelet over to see where the clasp was. There was none. Another new blue bead formed before your eyes as you finished speaking.

"Wh -- another favor? For what? I didn't -- you didn't -"

"You thanked me. Which means I did something worth thanking me for. In other words, a favor," he said smugly.

"B-but what do I owe you? I don't have anything on me," you said, now looking at the three glowing beads.

You sputtered but caught up, walking briskly alongside him. Prince Gojo’s long legs meant you were taking three steps for every one of his, scurrying after him like a mouse. He did not appear to be bothered by anything, his limbs loose and graceful as he walked along no discernible path. After some time, a large, white, stone castle appeared in the distance. It had turrets and towers and narrow windows and ivy growing on the sides and everything you imagined when you thought about castles. 

“I’ll have you cleaned up, then we’ll find Geto. I would like to surprise him, but it can be challenging, even for me,” Prince Gojo informed you, like you were a stray cat he was bringing into the house. You inhaled sharply, but didn’t answer, afraid to incur another favor. Prince Gojo sighed.

“Oh, do calm down. If I wanted you dead, you would have been before you woke up. And the favors merely hang over your head, they don’t cause you harm directly. Relax, human,” Prince Gojo scoffed, not calling you by your nickname. You still weren’t going to tell him your name, but human wasn’t a great option either.

“I’m nervous. And pretty scared,” you replied, trying to share your true feelings. Maybe he’d feel pity for you and cut you some slack. Prince Gojo made a small noise of surprise as his smile returned. 

“Honesty? In my court? That’s refreshing. And as for being nervous and scared – you should be.”

Gojo POV

What a funny turn of events. Gojo had the distinct feeling that something was off in his realm that morning, so he set off to find out what it was. It wasn’t like the feeling of a new powerful curse, or a new strong fae popping up to challenge him. No, this was something new. And something new meant Gojo was excited.

And Gojo loved excitement.

The court was almost always stale and boring, the elders interfering with what Gojo thought was right. There was always court drama, Fae falling in and out of favor, problems with the Unseelie, and of course the growing divide between himself and Geto. Gojo had tried to bridge it a few times, but something had shifted in Geto. They had been the first two Princes in eons to bridge the Seelie and Unseelie courts, but now things were going awry. There were whispers that it was never meant to be, that the Seelie and Unseelie could never mingle, but Gojo didn’t agree. Geto had been having a hard time since the Riko had died, but he could surely mend their relationship. Maybe bringing you in would open up some conversations. Or not and they’d kill you together.

He couldn’t believe that all the cursed energy shifting around was because of you. He nearly laughed when he found you in the forest, your little body curled in on itself like a sleepy cat. Instead of some powerful being he would have to fight, there was only a tiny human, sleeping without a care in the world.

He had circled you a bit before waking you, wanting to determine what he was dealing with. After all, the last human to come through the veil had caused many problems for him and Geto. But that was in the past, and you didn’t seem to be of the same caliber. 

Gojo had looked you over carefully, noting your hair, body, and face. You were good looking in that way humans sometimes were – beautiful in a sort of grubby, mortal kind of way. Maybe you’d look better in clothes other than the ugly rags you wore and with the dirt washed off your body. He’d find out once he brought you back to the castle and had you attended to. 

He really should have killed you. Humans weren’t allowed in the Fae realm, not without an express invitation from the Fae court. But Gojo just couldn’t bring himself to do it, not when you were sleeping. That would be so impolite, he would at least do you the courtesy of letting you know why he was killing you.  

But he especially couldn’t kill you after you woke up and began interacting with him. It was mesmerizing watching your emotions flick across your face. When he had called you ugly, your little face soured like you’d eaten a lemonberry. When you were confused, your nose wrinkled and your brows hitched together. When he had revealed that he might kill you, your mouth hung open in a little o. It was adorable. You were so expressive, so unafraid to show your emotions on your face. 

Gojo was so used to the politics of the Courts that he’d forgotten how amusing it was to deal with humans. Even now as he slowly walked with you back towards his castle, you were biting your lip in your nervousness. Gojo watched your breasts bounce gently in the shapeless shirt you wore as you walked hurriedly to match his slow pace. Yes, there was something beautiful in you, he just had to bring it out. Like cutting and polishing a rough stone into a gleaming gem.

And you were so easy to trick! Three favors owed and you’d barely known each other an hour. Really, he was almost embarrassed for you at how foolish you were with your words. But Gojo was never one to turn down favors. He didn’t even know what he would request of you – what could someone like him need from a human? – but he wanted them on his ledger all the same. 

Besides, others at court would see your bracelet, which would give you some kind of protection. No one in the Seelie court would cause you terrible harm, but the Unseelie….it was best you wore something from himself to mark you as under his wing. Because, like it or not, you were now part of Gojo's court. 

A/N:

This has been rattling around in my head for a while. Can't you just see Gojo as fae? The white hair, the sparkling eyes, the long ears, the penchant for mischief? Or Geto as a long haired, ethereally beautiful man in flowing fae robes? Tell me I'm not the only one.

You finally hit Marco’s room, tired and sweaty. Thankfully you were wearing your normal soft suit that sort of cleaned you while you wore it so you didn’t smell too bad. You ran a hand up and down your stomach – you’d miss this baby suit when you were back on Lafftale. But sacrifices had to be made and if your suit was one of them, so be it. Thinking of Lafftale had you wondering about Sol and how she was faring. 

Your jaw tensed as you thought of Sol and her health. Only her lower leg had been paralyzed when you left, but Oro’s Virus had surely progressed since then. You gnawed on your lip in thought, your foot bouncing as you worried. Was she still able to walk? To use her arms? To chew and swallow? Oro’s progressed more quickly in women than in men since it traveled on the X chromosome. Once a woman got it, both chromosomes were affected and she deteriorated rapidly, and Lafftale didn’t have anything near the medical equipment that Marco did. 

Your breathing was rapid again, and this time not from walking. You wished you could contact her somehow, but there was no way to know what was happening there. Suddenly, you felt completely pent up again despite all your previous exercise. And what helped your restlessness? Masturbation, you thought sagely, nodding to yourself. Not only did the pirates underestimate you, but they also didn’t understand how brilliant you were. 

You hiked yourself off the bed and started for the small container that Marco had given you for your belongings. Rifling through the myriad bows that kept accumulating, you found the little rose that brought you so much pleasure. You smiled at it – maybe you could convince Marco that since your heart rate climbed as you used it, it should count as exercise. Your head turned as you heard the snick of the door, only to see Marco leaning against the wall.

“Going to have some fun yoi?” he asked with a mild raise of his eyebrows.

“Yes. I’m going to relax by myself,” you said acerbically. You were still mad about the walking thing, and besides, masturbation was a solo activity. There was little hope in your mind that Marco would actually listen to you, but you felt like being bratty all the same. 

Whenever sex was involved, Marco was always a pest, and you didn’t think now would be any different. Sure, he’d left you alone the one time, but you didn’t think it was going to be a recurring pattern. Honestly, you thought that Marco was going to demand to stay with some flimsy excuse about making sure you weren’t ill or going to faint or something. Then he’d probably make you use it in front of him, sitting himself in front of your open legs. Or maybe pry your legs open and use it on you himself, making sure you knew how to operate the machine properly. 

Actually, he would probably want to punish you for mouthing off. He would hold you down, spread your legs apart and tease you with the toy, turning it off when you came close to coming. Marco would do that until you cried from frustration, licking the tears off your face. Or maybe instead he would use it on the highest setting, making you writhe in his hold but not stopping as he overstimulated you. Maybe he’d make you come over and over, since you had the impetus to start masturbating yourself. It was impossible to know what Marco would do, and if your nipples were puckering with your thoughts, well…that wasn’t on you.

Marco considered you for a moment, his mouth opening briefly before closing again. He swallowed and took a deep breath, his teal eyes flashing. Oh boy, here it comes…

“Very well yoi. I’ll bring you a beverage after you’re done. This much exertion means you’ll need more electrolytes,” Marco replied, pushing off the wall. Your eyebrows hitched as your hand curled around the rose.

“You’re not going to stay?” you asked, trying to make sense of what was happening. Marco shook his head.

“You specified that you wanted to be alone. I’m honoring your wishes,” he replied, crossing his arms. He was gripping each opposing arm tightly, but other than that he looked like the same Marco you had always known. The same perverted, lecherous, seductive, and deviant Marco….who wasn’t going to be with you.

“Oh. I - uh. Thank you,” you said, forcing down your shock. Maybe he really was changing, you thought as the door closed behind him. You kept watching the closed door, sure that it would open again in an instant. But nothing happened other than the sounds of Marco’s feet treading down the hall. You had gotten what you asked for – Marco had left you alone to your own devices.

So why did some part of you wish he had stayed?

It was actually insulting to see just how stupid the Whitebeard Commanders thought you were. Either that, or these infamous pirates with bounties in the hundreds of millions (and sometimes billions) were the worst bunch of actors you’d ever met. Because they were clearly pushing you to escape. 

And it wasn’t like they were subtle about it. If you had to rank them, Izou was the best at hinting at potential methods and strategies for you to escape, followed by Marco. Ace was alright only because he couldn’t focus on more than one thing at once and thus constantly forgot that he was supposed to be getting you to escape. Thatch, however, couldn’t keep the ruse up for longer than a minute. You felt like if you gave him your best puppy eyes, he’d tell you their whole plan in under a minute. 

It wasn’t a particularly difficult plan to decipher, either. It took you about three minutes to figure out that they wanted you to escape so that they could follow you to Lafftale. According to their plans, you were going to lead them to the human colony where they would then kidnap all the humans and take them aboard the Moby, like Marco had done to you. It would be the end of all human freedom for the rest of time, and they were going to use you to accomplish their goals.

Or so they thought. 

For now, you were going to play their game. If they wanted to make it easier for you to escape, you’d take all the help you could get. They would be patting themselves on the back, pleased they tricked the idiotic human right up until you slipped away from under their noses. They still underestimated you, and you were going to use that to your advantage.

And you really had no time to lose. Despite having no contact with Lafftale, you had the unshakable feeling that you were running out of time, and that you needed to leave the Moby immediately. Nothing good had been happening when you left and you were sure they were in greater dire straights than last you saw everyone. 

So a few days later, and you were about as ready as you could be to escape. Between your work and the Commanders helping you, things were falling into place rapidly. You had to keep pretending you weren’t planning anything, they had to keep pretending they weren’t trying to help, it was all a lot of emotional labor you wouldn’t miss once you made your way back to Lafftale. 

To that end, Marco had brought you to the infirmary and showed you where things you would want were. He did it under the guise of showing you where things were so you didn’t injure yourself, an excuse so flimsy you nearly stopped him halfway through his explanation.There were vaccines and cures ready to go in vials, as well as some electrolyte mixes that would be added to water, and some more advanced bandages and braces. You feigned general disinterest, though of course you noted where everything was for your needs.

Beyond that, you had also convinced Marco that you didn’t need to go into the stupid wheel again. It had been beyond humiliating walking on that thing. Not only that but you didn’t want to hear grown beings hundreds of times stronger than you saying versions of ‘you go girl’ when you were walking. Of all the tortures Marco had foisted upon you, that one was surely the worst. So instead you had talked him into walking the ship with you, which was beneficial in a few ways.

For one, unfortunately Marco was correct that your cardiovascular health was poor. He had told you that humans were long distance runners on Eurt, and that some humans could run for hours on end. You didn’t think that would ever be you, but you should be at least able to walk for a while without having to stop for breaks. You needed to be able to run for short distances without feeling like you were dying for your escape, and this was helping a little. But more than the increase in your stamina, your walks around the ship were yielding critical information.

Marco allowed you to set the route of your walks, ambling alongside you slowly as you huffed and puffed. Sometimes you talked a little bit, but he mostly left you to your own devices. That was fine by you, you were trying to memorize different pathways on the ship. You wanted to be able to get around without your digital map, so it was imperative you could navigate the ship on foot. You had also walked with Marco back towards the hangar that contained those old pods you had seen briefly before that freak threatened to eat you. Just being in the area had your pulse quickening, but you doubted that homicidal weirdo would do anything when you were with Marco. 

“What’s in there?” you asked, stopping in front of a set of doors. It still wasn’t on your map, but you wanted to see what Marco would say.

“Nothing interesting. Second Division storage yoi,” Marco lied easily. If you hadn’t been in there already, you would have believed him completely. 

“Like old ships and pods?” you prompted, trying to keep your tone neutral. It was a reasonable question, everyone knew that the Second Division was in charge of the smaller ships.

“Hmm. I don’t think so, I think they dispose of older equipment regularly. Do you want me to ask Ace yoi?” Marco asked, turning to look at you. You shook your head, aware that this was some kind of trap.

“No, I believe you. Doesn’t sound interesting,” you replied with a shrug as you continued walking.

“I would agree,” Marco agreed with a smile before tapping a message on his Controller.

The next day, Ace miraculously offered to teach you how to fly one of the new escape pods. He said it was “in case of extreme emergency.” You were barely able to control your eye roll before nodding and accepting his offer. 

“See? Isn’t this better? These new escape pods are great,” Ace said, taking the sim goggles off you. 

You licked your lips – the newer pods were easier to maneuver, sure. But you’d been trained on the old kind, that was your comfort zone. Not only that, but older pods seemed to be more modifiable, more able to act as autonomous small ships rather than just escape pods. These new ones couldn’t even send custom distress signals, they only used canned ones. Ace said it was so pirates wouldn’t be obliterated on sight by the Galactic Government with a distress signal.

“It’s different,” you concurred, standing up to walk back with Ace to the pod dock.

“These newer pods are awesome. They can contact other pods of the same variety, they can cloak, they have so many new features. You’ll love it,” Ace said, smiling broadly. His eyes looked to the side, like he was remembering something last minute. 

“Haha! Of course not that you’ll be flying! You’ll always be with Marco! Or me! And we would help you! And we never have to evacuate the ship!” Ace said, his tail flicking. God, they needed acting lessons. Maybe humans were the only natural actors in the universe. Or maybe all these pirates sucked at it. Either way, you pretended you didn’t notice anything amiss in Ace’s comment.

“By the way, where’s my old pod?” you asked, shifting the conversation. If possible, you were going to fly that one back since you knew it the best and you had quite a ways to go. Obviously you didn’t believe Marco that there was only storage in that pod hangar, you wanted to know if yours was still there somewhere. 

Ace’s brow furrowed as he pushed his orange hat off his head. His fuzzy ears popped up, making you want to rub them between your fingers. Based on some books you’d read on Lafftale, Ace looked like a giant Eurt cat. Apparently, cats had been companions and pets of humans, enjoying a life of leisure and luxury. You didn’t know if it was something innate in your human DNA, but you wanted to rub and scratch his ears so badly whenever you saw them peeking out of his hair. Ace frowned at your question.

“Oh, we destroyed it a few days after we recovered it. It was too old and worn to use even for spare parts,” he explained, scratching his chin. To your surprise, tears pricked at your eyes with the sudden news. You blinked rapidly to make them stop, but something in you had cracked with Ace’s statement.

And really, it was stupid. You didn’t care all that much about the pod itself. It was Terra’s originally, from back when she had first made contact with Lafftale years prior. You knew it was a hunk of junk and that it was old and difficult to work, that didn’t hurt your feelings exactly. Hell, you had shouted the very same statements at it while you were flying it. But hearing how easily they disposed of something so valuable to you and the others had you kind of messed up. 

They didn’t know how hard everyone had to work, how much effort it was to make it through every single day. Living cost so much on Lafftale – endless hours of sweat and blood and tears for life to continue. For these rich pirates, it was just a useless old pod. But for you and the other humans, it had been the only lifeline left in the universe to save everyone from dying. And they threw it away like trash.

“Hey, are you ok? Did I say something bad? You’re not hurt, are you?” Ace asked quickly, pulling you closer to the wall and away from other Second Division crew in the area. It wasn’t Ace’s fault, he hadn’t meant to upset you. You shook your head, wiping away a tear that fell down your cheek. Your face burned with the added humiliation of not being able to stop yourself from crying, but Ace had seen that before too. 

“ ‘M not hurt,” you said, trying to quell your tears. If you cried too much, Marco might come and interrupt your lesson with Ace. Though, given how disinterested he had been in you lately, that might not be true anymore. Even so, you didn’t want to take the risk. 

“I’m sorry, Luna. I didn’t know you would care so much. We can build you one that looks the same on the outside. I know humans care a lot about how stuff looks,” Ace offered. You shook your head again, ignoring the annoying human comment. 

“No. It’s fine. I’m fine,” you reiterated, crossing your arms. 

“But really, Luna, if you ever need to fly an escape pod, fly the new ones. The modules I used to train you were based on pod 10-5, so if at all possible, use that one. It’s safer and more reliable than anything you’ve flown before. The kind you flew before are prone to malfunction,” Ace said seriously, giving you a small nod. Right, back to the charade. You sniffled and dried your eyes, shifting back into the role you needed to play. After all, there would be endless time to cry once you got back to your home. 

“Will do. But I hope that never happens,” you agreed with a watery smile. 

Marco wasn’t the only liar on board.

Marco POV

Everything had been working out for the most part. You were planning your escape with their help, and were nearly complete in your preparation. The Commanders had thought about everything you needed and guided you to be able to acquire all your goals without being overly obvious. You hadn’t suspected a thing, much to Marco’s delight, and were nearly ready to make your “escape.” 

Just the thought of you leaving the ship was filling Marco with anxiety, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Even now he was pretending to work while remaining in your presence. Since he couldn’t touch you without your initiation, he settled for anything he could get. He tried to hang around you without being obvious, lingered a little closer than he should at times, and even “forgot” to warn you about a change in flooring on the ship so you’d stumble and he could right you. Everything about you called to him, but he had to keep himself on course in order to help save the humans. 

The small amount of comfort he received from your presence wasn’t enough. You were so weak and vulnerable and space was a brutal place for delicate things like you. Marco wished you would just tell him where Lafftale was and how to help you, but that ship had set sail long ago. And yes, they would be able to track and control the pod remotely from the Moby but the idea of you navigating those tiny pods had him spending his nights awake, yearning to touch you from his side of the bed. 

Marco sighed as he discreetly watched you lying on his bed on your stomach, kicking your legs up in the air. Based on what Izou believed, you were likely going to try escaping tomorrow after your big sleep. Marco frowned at the thought – you didn’t appear to be distressed about anything, not even escaping an Emperor’s crew. Instead, you were chewing on your lip as you reviewed a Common lesson, your eyes narrowing as you considered the information in front of you.

“Wait, Marco. This says - hold on,” you said, sitting upright on the bed. You hopped off and walked over to him, your Controller displaying information from your lesson. Marco pretended to break his concentration – he’d been looking over the same report for half an hour and didn’t even know which patient it was about. You walked over to him, your brows knitted together.

“This lesson says that this is the word for ‘Prince,’ you said, pointing to a word on your screen. Marco looked over and nodded. Marco supposed you were doing a module on addressing beings with hierarchical societies and learning vocabulary related to that.

“Yes, that’s correct yoi,” he agreed, unsure where you were going with this. 

“But – I thought it meant  – when I was calling you Master, that’s– that’s what I was using,” you said, bringing up one of your old messages. “See? Here I used this word, but doesn’t it mean master?”

“No, it means ‘prince,’ like your lessons show. In retrospect I should have corrected you at the time, but I found it endearing yoi,” Marco said with a mild smile. In truth, he had saved every single message and reread at them when you weren’t around.

“Oh my fucking –”

“Luna,” Marco warned as your face flamed.

“I’VE BEEN CALLING YOU PRINCE THIS WHOLE TIME?! THAT’S SO EMBARRASSING! IT’S WORSE THAN MASTER!” you yelled, throwing your hands out to the side. Marco chuckled, he would miss your antics for the short time you were gone from his side. 

“Not the whole time. Now you call me by my given name,” Marco explained calmly. “Is there anything else yoi?” he asked, though he was loath to end the conversation. Every minute with you was precious and the closer you came to making your getaway made Marco want to embrace you all the more.  Who knew how long it would take to retrieve you from your mission? They were going to have to follow you to Lafftale, and since no one knew where it was, it was impossible to determine how long he would be without you in his arms. Once he got you back, he was never letting you out of his sight again. 

“Whatever. I’m going to bed,” you said flippantly, as if it could cover the evidence of your still hot face. Marco looked at the time – it was early for him to sleep but he wanted to spend as much time in proximity to you as possible.

“I think I will as well yoi,” Marco said, turning off his computer screen. “That is, if you don’t mind.” You frowned at him and Marco’s heart clenched. He hoped you weren’t going to ask him to leave. Of course he would, he had to continue the plan, but it hurt like tearing a limb away every time you asked for private time. You were lucky he wasn’t keeping count of the times you rejected him so that he could make up for it later once he had you permanently in his care.

“I don’t mind,” you said in a stilted tone. Marco kept calm but felt like sagging with relief. A few moments later and the two of you were in bed, laying side by side, each on your own backs. Marco ensured that none of his body was touching yours, even as he yearned to pull you to him and kiss you once again. 

The room was silent as you laid there, though your eyes were open and your breathing wasn’t evening out. If Marco had to guess, you were thinking about your escape plans. He couldn’t bear the secret keeping between you, after this he would have to ensure that you never lied to one another again. You were already trusting him more, surely that meant that you could promise never to lie to him again. Could mates even lie to one another? Marco pondered the subject as you fidgeted next to him in the bed. 

After a few minutes, Marco turned on his side away from you. You needed to sleep well and get intense rest for your upcoming trip, so if his presence was disturbing you, he’d try to keep it to a minimum. He was selfishly staying when he didn’t need to rest just to be near you, so the least he could do was to allow you some relaxation. A moment later, he felt your fingers lightly pressing on his back before receding immediately.

“Marco, do you…do you not like me anymore?”

Your POV

Maybe Marco wasn’t acting.

Maybe Marco didn’t care if you got away.

Well, you were sure he generally cared in some kind of clinical way. He still made you walk and drink water and eat and rest like he always had. And you were still valuable, so it wasn’t like he could get rid of you completely. But he no longer doted on you, or watched you doing mundane things, or told you little facts he thought you might find interesting. When you walked the ship, he mostly kept his thoughts to himself unless you asked him a question – and even then he didn’t seem keen to keep the conversation flowing.

But ever since you asked Marco for space, it seemed like something had shifted in him. Maybe you requesting autonomy had made Marco realize that you weren’t just some mindless pet, and he wasn’t interested in being your friend anymore. Not that you were friends, but…well, you didn’t know what you and Marco were but he seemed disinterested in you as a whole. You weren’t his pet and you weren’t his friend, not crew, not a subordinate, and certainly not his equal… any way you sliced it, Marco didn’t seem to care much about you any longer.

When Marco turned his back to you in bed, you felt your heart break apart. Surely it was just your ego, but still, how could he treat you so coldly when he used to pull you close to his chest every night? Was this really the same being who had forced you to sit on his lap at every turn and wanted to preen you himself? The one who had fished for you and brought you rare Eurt items because he thought you might enjoy them? The one who flustered you for fun and turned humanoid for you? 

Maybe your novelty had run its course and Marco was ready to move on. Before you could stop yourself, you touched his broad back with your fingers, wanting to feel his warm, muscled, soft back one more time.

“Marco, do you…do you not like me anymore?” you asked, pulling your fingers away just as quickly. You wished you could take your words back as soon as they left your mouth, shame washing over you. There had been times when you sincerely wished Marco dead, and now you were practically begging him for attention. Maybe you really were the stupid, emotional creature that Marco thought you to be.

“What?” Marco asked, turning immediately to face you. “What are you talking about yoi?” His face was drawn in concern, looking into your eyes like he did when trying to determine if you were injured. Now you really wished you could unsay it as you shifted uncomfortably in the bed.

“I, um…you don’t have to like me, of course. It’s not like that, I get it. But, um, no – no, it’s ok,” you stammered, holding up a hand in front of you to try and show you didn’t mean what you had said.

“How could – why would you think that?” Marco asked, reaching for your face. But his fingers never made contact, fluttering back down to the empty space between you. You shrugged and looked away from him, unwilling to verbalize the competing feelings within you. It was pathetic to admit that you felt his absence, that you wanted more of his attention. You didn’t want all of the old Marco to return, but the way he was treating you now didn’t feel great either.

“”Do you really think I don’t like you anymore yoi?” he repeated, his eyes softening. You didn’t reply, which was answer enough. Silence dragged on between you for a single moment before he sighed.

“Oh, Luna,” Marco cooed sadly. He looked down for a moment, before pressing a button on the top of his controller. He then pushed his talon into the bottom, making it pop open. Marco removed it completely and tossed it off the bed, like it was a weight dragging him down. 

Marco’s focus returned back to you, his hand reaching for you once more. “May I?” he whispered, his hand so close you could feel the warmth. You nodded weakly, unsure where this was going. Maybe this was going to be the final letdown where he told you that you overestimated your worth or value to him or that someone else was going to be your master now. He finally made contact, cupping your cheek gently and turning your face to his.

“Luna, I cannot describe how much I yearn for you,” Marco said quietly. “I have heeded your words and have been attempting to give you the independence you seek, and it has been an unbelievable challenge for me. Nothing could make me not lo– like you. I want your time, your attention, your laughter, your conversation, everything you are. I want it all yoi.” Your mouth hung open with Marco’s words. You swallowed thickly, unsure of how to answer Marco’s confession. 

“I’m trying to be better for you, to give you what you asked for. I haven’t been touching you unless you touch me first, or without your express permission. I’m trying to give you space for your own thoughts and experiences,” he continued. “Is that why you felt that I no longer liked you? You missed my attention?” he pressed, the pad of his hallux rubbing your cheek. 

“I don’t feel ignored,” you mumbled, even as your heart skipped a beat. Marco definitely didn’t need to know that you felt that way. Marco smiled indulgently, his eyes dancing with mirth. 

“I am glad. I would never want you to feel that way. You are the most special, wonderful, interesting being on this ship yoi,” Marco continued, his words making you flush down to your chest. You almost felt like you did on the wheel, his compliments making you want to slink away. 

“Because I’m human?” you groused, trying to stymy your emotions.

“Because you’re you. Even if I had been on Eurt and met all the humans there, I would still like you the most yoi,” Marco assured you, his hallux rubbing over your bottom lip. You didn’t really know what to say to all that – you had assumed Marco only cared about you for your fertility or for your humanity, or novelty, but never because of who you were as a person. Maybe you had misjudged him a little. And truthfully, you were feeling giddy now that you knew he did still want you. 

“You’re just saying that. You’ve only met one human,” you said, giving him a sly smile. Marco shook his head.

“No. I know it for a fact,” he said with complete certainty. OK, he was really making you feel wanted with all his talk about enjoying your company.

“So…out of curiosity, what would you do if you could touch me again?” you asked, trying to shift the conversation a little. Sure, that rose thing was fucking great, but it was different than the touch of another living being. And once you got back to Lafftale, it wasn’t like any of the men were interesting to you there so you’d be back to the celibate life. Marco laughed, his fingers lightly pinching your cheek.

“Mmh. Naughty little human tempting me, knowing I cannot act on my urges,” Marco purred. 

“You can tell me, it’s ok,” you assured him, eager to hear what he would do. Marco shifted slightly closer to you, his body nearly touching your own. 

“I will be honest. There is something I have always wanted to do together that we have not yet attempted yoi,” he said, his gaze boring into your own. You felt like you couldn’t tear your eyes away as he began painting a scene in your mind.

“I would love to train your throat to accept my cock,” Marco husked, his hold on your face shifted so his hallux was now pressing lightly on the front of your throat. Your breathing picked up as Marco continued talking, the rest of his fingers loosely circling your neck.

“H-how?” you breathed out. You’d heard of oral sex before, people did it on Lafftale all the time. You never personally felt compelled to try it yourself, but you weren’t completely unaware of what it entailed. Still, you wanted to hear Marco’s take on the situation. 

“It wouldn’t be all at once, of course. I would not overwhelm you, I am not a cruel master to you yoi.  I would guide you, telling you exactly how to please me. I would have you naked between my legs, your body still shivering from the orgasm I would have already given you on my own tongue. First, I would have you licking my cock like the treat that it is, your warm, pink tongue flicking out of your mouth all over my shaft. You would be hesitant at first, unsure if you were doing it correctly, but I would assure you that you were. You are always a good little human for me,” Marco purred, his fingers gripping the column of your neck a little more strongly.

“Next, you would wrap your warm little mouth around the tip of my cock, swirling your tongue around me. Your hands would rest on my thighs, your fingers curling as the tip of my cock hit the back of your throat for the first time. You would take me deeper and deeper into your mouth, the sounds of my pleasure increasing your own desire yoi,” he rasped, his words creating a hypnotic effect over you. 

“I would praise you as you took me down your throat, acclimating yourself slowly to my large cock. It would be a challenge for you, tears leaking down your sweet face and drool down your chin. I would wipe your tears away as my hands wrapped around your head, guiding you up and down my shaft as I shallowly bucked my hips. It would be at your pace, but I would not be able to stop myself from enjoying the sensations yoi.”

“Soon, I would come undone under your ministrations, keeping your head in place as I came down your throat. Afterwards I would pull you off my cock and into my lap, ready to repay you handsomely for a job well done,” Marco said, his eyes flashing. You nodded mutely, unable to summon a single word as a reply.

“But, that would only be if I could touch you. Which I cannot. Not without your permission,” Marco said easily, removing his hand from you entirely and shrugging. He rolled over onto his back, resting his hands behind his head and sighed, as if he was ready to go to sleep. You narrowed your eyes – he knew exactly what he was doing.

Meanwhile, you could feel your own slick between your thighs. Marco’s words had something to you, something wicked. You licked your lips, weighing your options. Really, you should go to sleep and get rested for your escape the following day. It would be long, challenging, and anxiety producing. There were many moving parts in play and everything needed to line up exactly right in order for you to actually get away from the Whitebeard Pirates and not just lead them to Lafftale. 

On the other hand, when you succeeded you would once again be stuck on Lafftale. No one would think you were unique or interesting or sexy or smart, or any of the things that Marco saw in you. You would go from being someone special back to regular old Luna. And there would be no one who would want to pleasure you like Marco did, that was for sure….Oh what the hell. You might as well get some while there was a hot being who wanted you and thought you were the greatest thing in the universe.

“I guess we could try it. If you think it would be fun,” you said as indifferently as you could. Marco’s eyes snapped to yours, his grin widening. He rolled onto his side, holding his head up on his palm. 

“I would ensure it would be fun yoi,” Marco said, his fingers creeping on the bed towards you.

“You said I would get to come first, though,” you pointed out, thinking about the fantasy he had woven for you. Marco’s fingers stopped their approach as he leaned over to whisper in your ear.

“So I did. Do you give me permission to push my tongue so deep into your sweet cunt that you scream?”

Sol POV

Sol looked at the sky, just about the only thing she could now do from her bed bound position. She was thankful that at least the pain had stopped, the paralysis now up to her shoulders. Once Oro’s virus ate through enough of the nervous system, the numbness and sudden pins-and-needles feelings gave way to nothing. Frankly it was a relief after living with the debilitating pain Sol had been in for months even if it meant that death was near. 

There was no denying that Sol was in the final stages of Oro’s virus – she had seen it happen to so many on Lafftale by this point. There was nothing to do other than accept what was coming for her. In her heart, Sol had held out a shred of hope that Luna would return. In her dreams, she sometimes saw Luna running to her, a syringe with a cure in hand. Luna would save her in her last moments, snatching Sol away from death’s door. They’d cry and laugh as Luna held Sol, the feeling returning to Sol’s limbs so she could feel her sister’s touch once more.

But that was never going to happen. Luna wasn't coming back, and Sol would never feel Luna hugging her or brushing her hair. They would never meet again in this life, never travel to Eurt, never eat chocolate, never go swimming in water. 

Sol smiled to herself, hoping Luna was faring well wherever she was. Since no one knew what became of Luna after her escape, Sol liked to imagine Luna met someone who loved her and was taking care of her. Someone who protected her, gave her water, food, love and anything else Luna could ever want. 

But that was merely another childish fantasy. Sol didn't dare think of what actually happened to Luna, this time preferring to keep her delusions.

Sol closed her eyes, ready to sleep once again. She was so tired nowadays, so tired. But at least Luna was with her in her dreams.

“You and Luffy are always yelling. I don’t think you have another volume setting between whispering and yelling,” you said, matter-of-factly. Ace laughed with his whole chest, which made you smile in return. Fucking charisma, both he and Luffy had it in spades. It made you wonder about their other brother and what he was like. Probably another black haired idiot with a sweet smile, inner turmoil, and a penchant for falling asleep after eating.

“You should meet my friends if you think I’m loud –”

“That’s me, right?” asked a tall figure in a red and white kimono. You looked up at them, your eyes noting the countless hours it likely took them to get their specific look. Unless that was all natural? Their hair was white, teal and green in absolutely stunning waves, starting from their…horns. Whatever, you decided. It seemed like this was one of those cartoons where people could have any kind of hair imaginable. 

“Yeah! That’s you!” Ace said, giving finger guns to a giant…person-ish being. “Misty, this is Yamato. He’s from Wano,” Ace declared proudly, reaching up to try to put his arm over Yamato’s shoulders. Ace was about two and a half feet too short to accomplish it, but Yamato didn’t seem to mind. And if the reveal that Yamato was from Wano meant something, you didn’t know what that would be. Maybe everyone in Wano wore a giant purple and white bow or had giant maces. Hard to say.

“Pleased to meet you,” you said easily, extending your hand. Yamato switched his giant spiky mace from one hand to the other and grabbed your own. He gripped your hand harshly and shook it vigorously before letting go. You winced but smiled, he was clearly trying to be friendly.

“Likewise. Ace usually hates the Readers, but he says you’re like a big sister to him,” Yamato declared with a giant smile. You raised an eyebrow at Ace, giving him a playful smile.

“Is that so? Does that mean I get to boss you around?” you asked, taking another big gulp of your coffee. 

“You already do. You made me help Sanji with the laundry,” Ace replied, stretching his arms over his head. Seeing Ace had you wondering…

“I didn’t hear you complaining. Wait, why are you up so early today? On the Merry you didn’t wake up before noon –”

“That’s not true –”

“Yeah it is. I had to flip your bed over to get you out of it,” you said, looking at the now rising sun.

“Me ‘n Yamato are gonna go fight in the melee. Represent the Whitebeard Pirates. Only a few of us are going, these small fry can’t take it –”

“Fuck off, Portgas-ya,” Law said as he sidled up, a mug of steaming coffee in his hand. Ace didn’t seem to mind, giving a shrug.

“I mean, ‘s true. That’s why most of the Commanders and Pops aren’t fighting. Pops would kill you all in like, seconds. For real. So it’s jus’ me, Yamato, I think two or three others…oh, and Marco –” You glanced over at Whitebeard on his giant chair – just how strong was he?

“Izou is joining just for today,” Yamato said, rubbing his chin. “He said he wasn’t going to ruin his nighttime routine for a bunch of lousy, snot nosed nobodies so he’s coming back tonight.”

“We’re not nobodies. My bounty is already 200 million –” Law interrupted, his tone clipped.

“That’s not much around here,” Ace said with a cocky grin.

“And I’m not fighting, I’m on call for the first idiot who gets knocked out yoi,” Marco said, sidling up with his own cup of coffee.

“Tch. I’m a doctor too, I can do that,” Law scoffed, before gulping down some of his black coffee.

“You’re a doctor, you can fight, what can’t you do?” you said sarcastically, giving him a snarky look. Your eyes slid to Marco’s and he grinned back at you. 

“Kids these days –”  Another loud voice resounded across the deck before you could continue your thought.

“HE CAN’T FUCK –”

“Shut the fuck up Eustass-ya,” Law growled back at the larger man. Kid barked out another laugh, his painted smile wide across his face. Killer was with him, drinking an iced coffee through a straw. You waved to Killer with a smile. Killer waved back. You couldn’t see his face under the mask but you bet he was smiling. Man, Killer’s a great guy, you thought.

“Not that it’s your business, but I –”

“Whimper when Strawhat kisses your neck,” Kid interrupted in a high pitched register, his fists under his chin in an approximation of a cute gesture. You laughed despite yourself, it was pretty funny. 

“You like getting punched in the face while you’re going at it!” Law retorted coolly, though his stiffening posture suggested Law was actually getting riled up.

“How would you know that? You peepin’ on how a real man does it?” Kid asked with a shit eating grin. One thing was for sure – Kid was good at rage baiting Law. And based on how tightly wound Law was, maybe that was a good thing. They started arguing loudly which was your sign to leave. Too early, too loud. Except for Killer, of course.

“Killer, if you’d like a haircut, feel free to find me,” you tossed out. At that, Kid let go of Law’s blue jacket to look at you.

“Thanks –” Killer said with a thumbs up.

“He won’t need the help of a stupid Strawhat Reader, I can do it for him. I cut my own hair,” Kid retorted. You considered his strange, tulip-like head for a moment. 

“I can tell,” you deadpanned. Law snickered, which made you feel a sense of accomplishment. Getting a stoic person like Law to laugh always felt great. 

“IT’S NOT FUNNY YOU FUCKING QUACK –”

“I WENT TO MEDICAL SCHOOL! YOU DON’T EVEN HAVE A DOCTOR ON YOUR CREW –”

“Bye, boys. Have fun out there,” you tossed behind you as you left the increasingly loud group. You began humming the tune of “Tiptoe through the Tulips” as you walked away. If Kid was rude to you again, that was the next song you’d be teaching Luffy. They would learn to fear your ways…

After finishing your surprisingly tasty coffee, you had gotten down to business. You didn’t want to start with the Captain, wanting to get your groove on other large faces before his. Since there were so many people on board, it wasn’t hard to find people willing to be your first snip of the day. You’d done a few easy haircuts and shaves, and refreshed Jozu’s lovely bantu knots for him. For pirates who were constantly on the seas, they certainly had a lot of unique hairstyles. But who were you to judge? At least it was interesting and not just hundreds of heads of ashy blonde beachy waves.

You had your scissors and straight edge razor ready from the last time you had sharpened them with Zoro. It had actually been kind of cute – you and Zoro were getting ready to sharpen your respective tools when Sanji came out onto the deck. He was bringing you an afternoon coffee like your personal waiter with a giant smile. As always, it fell when he saw Zoro sitting next to you.

“Tch. Move, you shitty moss,” Sanji said, kicking Zoro’s boot. It wasn’t a real kick, you knew that by now. If Sanji had really been kicking, Zoro would have had to block with a sword. Their feats were impressive, and you were a little curious to see them fight on Melee Island. But this tap was only a means to move Zoro. And for once, Zoro didn’t react other than moving his foot. You had realized that when either Sanji or Zoro were actually engaged in their respective crafts, the other would respect their time and space.

“Fuck off, Ero-cook. We’re gonna start sharpening,” Zoro said, pulling out his assortment of whetstones. It was a little cute that Zoro had lumped the two of you into a “we.” Maybe he was finally feeling more friendly towards you. You felt like tossing him a bone for his kindness.

“It’s true, I have my scissors and everything,” you said, showing him your disassembled scissors. Sanji’s head cocked to the side in that adorable way it did when he was considering new information.  “Thank you for the coffee, Sanji. Would you like to join us as well?,” you asked as you accepted your delicious beverage. 

“Hmm…I do have a few knives I need to sharpen. Would it bother you if I accepted your invitation?” Sanji asked, holding his serving tray under his arm. He was looking at you as he spoke but really, his attention had flicked to Zoro’s whetstones. Had they really never sharpened their implements together before? It seemed like a good bonding activity for them, something that they could do without arguing. They were both incredible at their respective fields – Sanji at cooking (and kicking?) and Zoro at swordfighting. Well, you assumed Zoro was good, you’d never actually seen him really fight before. So this might help them find some common ground that didn’t lead to actionable violence.

“Yes!” you replied cheerily.

“No,” Zoro said with a scowl at the same time you agreed. 

“I wasn’t asking you, molded moss–”

“I wasn’t inviting you, love-cook –” You gave Zoro a dirty look before overriding the first mate.

“I was inviting him and I’m dying so I get to say yes or no. Sanji, please join us,” you stated primly before giving Sanji a wide smile.

“You can’t use that to get your way all the time,” Zoro scoffed as Sanji walked briskly back to the kitchen.

“Sure I can,” you replied with an easy smile. “And once I die, you won’t have to hear it anymore,” you said with a shrug of your shoulders. You’d always had a darker sense of humor and it didn’t seem to bother anyone on the Strawhat Pirates. Zoro grunted but didn’t say anything else, just took the rest of his tools out of his kit. Sanji returned moments later with three of his most used knives, along with a small whetstone and some towels. Sanji had set up his station on your other side, leaving you sandwiched between the young idiots. 

The three of you said few words between you as you each worked on your individual projects. Since you only had two scissors and one razor, you were done first. You quietly packed up your belongings and left the two of them to continue working. They spoke a few words here and there about the whetstones but otherwise were concentrating on their own work. Maybe you were a genius at love, you congratulated yourself…before hearing Zoro and Sanji erupt into an argument about who had the better estimation of a fifteen degree angle. Ah well, you’d try again later…

So now your sharp scissors were ready to give a shave and cut to one Whitebeard, Captain of the Whitebeard Pirates. Everyone who was fighting had left for the island, though they were waiting for some kind of signal to begin the fight. You wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but you had work to do before you could relax and have fun. Some things didn’t change from one world to the next. Though technically, you didn’t really have to work, you would feel bad if the Whitebeard Pirates helped the Strawhats and you contributed nothing. Besides, you were getting some good trades out of the Whitebeards. 

You hadn’t tried to find out much information about Whitebeard from the crew, you figured you’d get the story from him personally. Besides, you kind of got the gist already. Giant, powerful, aging GILF Captain, powerful DILF crew, Ace’s dad maybe, something like that. He kind of reminded you of a giant Boomer in the way he carried himself. If you didn’t know any better you’d ask him for his loyalty reward card to the local hardware store.

“So what’re we doing today?” you asked the Captain, eyeing his head and face. “Would you like a shave?” you guessed, looking over his impressive mustache. He was wearing a headwrap with nothing peeking out from underneath, so you guessed there wasn’t much there. It seemed that much like in your world, men in this one were just as sensitive about hair loss.

“Shave would be good,” the Captain boomed, tugging on his mustache speculatively. “You any good with a straight razor, girlie?” he asked. You held yourself back from rolling your eyes – you were a guest on his ship and needed to be nice. And really, he wouldn’t be the first boomer to doubt you. Thankfully, the ship had plenty of strops and shaving supplies already on board so all you needed to use from your own kit was your straight razor.

“You any good at sailing the seas?” you quipped back, already rummaging through the pocket you’d been given by Blamenco in trade for a cut earlier that morning. You really, really liked the pocket. In fact, it might be your favorite thing about the One Piece world. At first you had been hesitant because what on earth did a “never ending pocket” actually mean? But as soon as he showed you that it could carry your entire kit without weighing anything and be completely portable, you were sold. You’d given him a giant hug as well as a shave in addition to the cut. 

“GURARARARA. Some say so, Lass,” Whitebeard replied amicably. You smiled, getting everything out that you would need. It wasn’t more difficult to work on Whitebeard, it was just…more. You were actually more nervous to work on Izou, the Commander’s lovely hair clearly a source of pride, but you wouldn’t have to deal with that until tomorrow.

“I’m gonna need you to lean back in your chair. Er, wait. Maybe lay on the deck?” you asked, looking at his throne-like chair on the deck. How else were you gonna reach his whole face? The other men hadn’t been quite as tall as Whitebeard, so they’d just sat on the deck and leaned down so you could work on them. 

“You can stand on my hand –” Whitebeard suggested, scratching his head.

“Fuck no –” you mumbled, trying to think of a way out of this. One giant hand was enough, you weren’t going for two giant hand experiences. 

“I can take off the mustache if it’s easier for ya,” Whitebeard said, tugging on the end a bit. You laughed as you circled him, already thinking about what you needed to get the job done.

“Ha ha, very funny,” you said, tilting your head to think about other viable options. You didn’t really see a way out of it, he was gonna have to lay on the deck.

“That’s not a joke. He can do it,” Marco called out as he walked across the deck, his lower half shifted into talons. Kind of a cool party trick, you thought. Maybe the fighting was going to start soon and you’d get to see Marco fly. But then your brow furrowed as you actually thought about what Marco had just said.

“Wh- you’re shitting me,” you said, taking a step back to look at Whitebeard. He seemed like he had a normal face, what did that mean he could detach his mustache? Was that some kind of devil fruit thing?

“No. Watch and learn, brat,” Whitebeard said, reaching for the end of his mustache. “STEPHAN! FETCH!” Whitebeard yelled, before ripping off his mustache and chucking it across the deck. A gigantic white, fluffy dog bounded across the deck, catching it in his mouth. As he brought it back, you saw that the dog had a matching mustache. OK, now this dog was actually your favorite thing in the whole One Piece world, the pocket already in second place. He bounded up to the two of you, bringing the mustache back to Whitebeard. 

“DROP IT!” Whitebeard boomed, grabbing the mustache. Stephan played tug of war for a moment before dropping it, losing interest as Thatch walked by carrying a tray of steaming scrambled eggs. The dog tailed it after the chef, his tail wagging happily. Your hand reached out to pat Stephan, but he was long gone. 

“Actually what was that –”

“So between that and the lack of hair on my head, I should be quick for ya,” Whitebeard said with an impish smile. Your mental file of “things that don’t make sense here” was filling quickly, but you weren’t going to worry about it. Your eyes flicked to the bandana on his head. Did they have cancer in One Piece? Why wouldn’t they? You thought. But then again, there were so many things you had no context for in this world it wasn’t crazy to assume there was no cancer here.

“You’re gonna have to lay on the deck, sorry. I can’t really do much about your height and I don’t wanna be picked up,” you said, rubbing your chin. You were expecting pushback since Whitebeard was the captain, but he merely shrugged. Some kind of gunshot went off in the background, along with some roaring. Apparently the fight had started, but you’d have to watch it later.

“‘S alright with me, brat –”

“Stop calling me that –” you muttered. You weren’t a brat, and hadn’t been one in a very long time. You were middle-aged for gods sake!

“I’ve spent plenty of time on the deck,” he said, moving slowly to sit down on the massive deck. You gave him space but didn’t miss the way that all the working men on the deck stopped what they were doing to watch their Captain position himself on the ground. No one said anything, but the worry was plain on their faces as Whitebeard successfully made it to the deck. 

“You wanna take off the bandana? I can give you a fresh shave there too if you’d like,” you offered, spreading a hot towel over his face.

“No need. It’s gone, been falling out for a while now. Medicine caused it,” he explained. Ah, so maybe it was cancer, you thought as you placed another towel over his face. 

“You’ll be alright, Pops. The medicine is helping,” Jozu said as he carried several barrels, his shiny arm twinkling and scattering rainbows across the deck. Now was not the time to ask about the diamond arm, you thought to yourself. 

“Tch. Everyone dies, son. Even me,” Whitebeard said, his face now partially obscured by a steaming towel you laid across it. You looked at him, some pity unfurling in your chest. Sure, you didn’t know him at all, maybe he killed thousands of people or something. But he seemed nice enough and he definitely had a lot of people who loved him. No matter the circumstance, it was difficult to watch a loved one suffer long term illnesses. The tension on the deck made you fidget as you placed another hot towel on Whitebeard’s face. You started foaming the lather for his face, the working crew still watching their Captain.

So you did what you always did when you were uncomfortable.

Said something stupid.

“Gonna make a big ass skeleton,” you said, preparing the lather. The deck went completely silent, all the chatter of the crew suddenly stopping with your words. The only sound you could hear was the cawing of the sea birds near the ship.

“What did you say?” Jozu asked quietly. You slowed down your mixing, as you looked up in dawning horror. This was no slip up at work where you told some client that her perfume had expired or something like that.

“I – uh,” you stammered, unsure what to reply. 

“GURARARARARARARARARA,” Whitebeard laughed, his chest shaking with mirth. Thank FUCK, you thought. You let out a breath and a smile as the rest of the crew relaxed, some laughing too. You removed the towels from his face and began to apply the shaving cream.

“No one’s had the balls to talk about it to my face,” he said, his eyes closed. 

“No one else is dumb enough,” you replied, finishing the lather. “If it makes you feel better, I’m dying too,” you added.

“Aye. No way around it,” he said, nodding his head. In some way, it felt a little nice with someone validating your thoughts. Sure, you’d said it a bunch of times, but you were always met with concern or frowns. At least Whitebeard was honest.

“Now, Whitebeard, hold still and stop talking otherwise I’ll end up slicing ya,” you said, pulling a small section of his skin tight.

“Call me Pops, brat,” he said amicably before closing his eyes. 

“Whoa, you’re letting her call you Pops? No Reader has ever had the privilege before,” Thatch said, sidling up to you with a large plate of eggs and your first latte of the day. You finished the stroke you were on and cleaned off your blade.

“Never liked any of the Readers before. Snot nosed brats always think they know anything about piracy when they can’t even make a bowline knot,” Whitebeard murmured as you continued.

“Thank you, Thatch,” you said, giving a quick glance at the eggs. He smiled and leaned back against the railing, clearly ready to chat and linger. No way, you wanted to work as diligently as you could so that you could watch the fight. Not only that, it was always more annoying to work with someone watching your every move.

“Begone. I have to concentrate,” you said, dismissing Thatch with a wave of your hand. But he wasn’t an underling, so he ignored you.

“Nah. I wanna hang out with you and Pops. Besides, I was gonna ask – when we get new Readers, we usually put on a show at night. You guys have new music and well, it gets boring here. We’ve got a band, and we can learn almost any song or style if you wanna teach us something for tonight,” Thatch offered, his crooked grin widening. 

“Oh, you’re gonna play when the fight stops?” you asked. 

“No, they’ll fight for a few days I’m guessing,” Thatch speculated, tugging on his goatee. 

“A few days?!” you exclaimed. How was that even possible?

“Yeah. I’m thinking probably three. It’s a lot of players, but they’re all relatively inexperienced. So probably three. I mean, anyone who wants to can stop for the night, but their pride is on the line. They’re not going to,” Thatch explained. Now you were really glad you’d never arm wrestled Usopp to be able to fight in their crew.

“No more Mitski,” Pops grumbled. Thatch laughed, his scar winking in the morning sun. He looked like something out of a rancher fantasy, like a bad boy who could be good for a night…goddammit why was everyone on the ship so hot? But thinking about hot men only had your mind wandering to thoughts about Jinbei. You really wanted to see him fighting. He had mentioned that he was proficient in Fishman karate, and you wanted to see what that entailed. Ace had said Jinbei was incredibly powerful, and everyone had agreed…

“So what about it? And yeah, no more Mitski. Pops doesn’t like it. Says it’s too whiny,” Thatch said, bringing your thoughts back to the present. 

“Oh, uh. Sure. I can think of something,” you said, nearly done with Pops’ face. You thought through different songs he would like. Whitebeard was a boomer, a rough and tumble, an outlaw…what would he like? A smile broke out on your face as you figured out the perfect song.

“Yeah, I got something for y’all,” you said, already thinking about a roster of songs for the guys. Hopefully the previous hadn’t used any of your selections, you wanted these guys to love what you were gonna sing for them. You thought about your set while you finished Whitebeard’s shave, his giant face less of a pain than you’d been expecting. 

“You’re all set,” you said, wiping your hands on a towel.

“Feels alright,” Whitebeard said, rubbing his cheek as he sat up. Whitebeard put his hands on his knees in preparation to stand. Thatch was now in front of you, extending his hand to Pops to help him up. 

“I don’t need help standing up, whelp,” Pops said, batting away Thatch. He slowly rose to his knees, but eventually got himself back on the chair. 

“Take a look,” you said, handing Pops a mirror when he was finally back in his seat. Pops took the mirror and admired his fresh shave. You’d done pretty well for being on a large rocking boat, you thought. Whitebeard handed you back the mirror and smiled at you.

“You did a good job,” Pops said, giving you a pat on the back with his giant, warm hand. You blinked rapidly unsure what to say in return. You had been expecting a thank you but the praise combined with a pat was a heady feeling. No wonder these men loved their dad. You’d take being called a brat if it meant someone finally told you that you’d done something well. Hell, you’d probably go fight on that island if he told you he’d pat your head and thank you afterwards. 

“Thanks, Pops,” you said, giving him a smile before taking a sip of your latte.

“Ooh, it’s good. Thank you, Thatch. You got the cinnamon just right,” you said before taking another drink. 

“C’mon, let’s go talk to the guys in the band. It’s better if we have time to practice before the show tonight,” explained as he wrapped an arm around your shoulders. You raised your eyebrow and pushed it off with your index finger. 

“Can’t blame me for trying my luck,” he said, putting his hands behind his head. You rolled your eyes, but didn’t hold it against him. And really, what was so wrong about having handsome and helpful men show interest in you? Thatch led you across the deck, passing in view of the island where the fighting was.

You looked out at the island, focusing on what was happening there for the first time. Stopping in front of the railing, you watched with your mouth hanging open. Never in your wildest fantasies could you have imagined anything like this.

It was complete mayhem and you were honestly shocked no one had died yet. Right now, Luffy was going up against Law and Kid. Kid somehow had made a giant metal gun, Law had his weird blue bubbles and his sword, and they were both being repelled by Luffy. Luffy! The same kid you had to convince to wash his hands after blowing his nose! And Luffy appeared to be holding his own against the two larger men. Right now he looked like he was charging up for something, kind of like those Goku memes you’d seen a few times. 

“TALK TO THE …..HAAAAAAAND!” Luffy yelled as he attacked with a giant palm strike. Oh, so Ace had used that phrase on him. Law and Kid dodged at the last minute, readying attacks of their own.

But before you could see what else he was going to do, your attention shifted elsewhere. Zoro was fighting Killer, who had some kind of swinging machetes. Zoro had his third sword in his mouth, which was…not what you expected. You had always thought he kept a backup or something! But apparently his jaw was strong enough to wield it like that. Maybe the skill was transferable, you thought, as he barked something at Sanji.

Robin was fighting Yamato, her limbs much more versatile in battle than you’d imagined. Robin was completely concentrating on Yamato – who had grown a billowing white tail? And was that Chopper? The giant beefy reindeer? He was fighting Penguin and Shachi, while Franky duked it out with a tall guy from the Kid pirates with fishnets, spikes on his head, and a trident. A purple haired guy (who really had the perfect shade of periwinkle hair, the girls would have gone crazy for him) was blowing fire at Brook. The musically oriented skeleton had whipped out a sword to parry the flames. Was there always a sword in that cane?

And holy fuck what was happening with Ace and Jinbei? They were both grinning as they fought, clearly enjoying themselves. You couldn’t tear yourself away, watching as Jinbei drew water in a circle around him before launching it at Ace. Ace dodged and sent a fiery cannonball attack back at Jinbei, who deflected it easily by punching the air and sending Ace flying backwards. 

“Oh yeah. Jinbei and Ace. They’ve fought each other before, actually. Ended in a draw after about five days,” Thatch said, looking out where you were gazing. “Well, they say it was a draw. I think Jinbei could have won if he used more underhanded tactics. But he won’t, that’s not his wya,” Thatch said as Ace evaded a hit that shattered the ground below him. Nearby, Law had somehow used electrical energy to stun Kid and crack the earth, though it was ineffective against Luffy’s rubbery body. A plume of black smoke rose as something exploded on the other side of the island. 

“Are they gonna blow up the island?” you wondered out loud as Ace landed a fiery kick on Jinbei. You winced but as Ace bounced back, you saw that Jinbei’s arms were black and he didn’t seem to take any damage. Jinbei’s aura seemed to be crackling around him, his fierce gaze trained on Ace alone. This was far from the calm, collected, well spoken Fishman you had come to know. Even so, watching him brought you a certain…thrill.

“Maybe, not sure. It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened. I wouldn’t worry about it, though. I would worry about getting booed off the stage tonight,” Thatch said, giving you a pointed look. 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll get going inna minute. Let me watch a bit, I was working this morning,” you humphed. You leaned forward as Jinbei took a cool stance. Maybe he was going to make a kamehameha or something. Did they have those here?

“You liking the fight?” Thatch asked, leaning on the railing next to you.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” you said truthfully as Ace launched himself into the air. Jinbei dove for a nearby pool of water and started hurling water spears at Ace. What in the hell…?

“Oh you’re liking it alright. You lean any further over the railing and you’re going overboard. There’s no shame in it, I got a radar for Battle Bunnies,” Thatch said. You finally broke eye contact from watching Jinbei to give Thatch a scowl.

“Excuse me?” you asked, pursing your lips. 

“You know…chicks who get their thrills from watching their men fight. ‘S really common, we see it all the time. The best part is that after the fight ends, the real marathon starts. Some guys call it pirate puss –” You made a fake vomiting noise to stop his speech. 

“Shut. Up. Or I’m gonna cut your hair crooked,” you said without any malice. Thatch put his hand on his chest and let out an exaggerated gasp.

“I’m just trying to teach you about our world, is that so wrong?” he asked in mock offence.

“Go say your nasty thoughts to someone else, I don’t wanna hear it.” Thatch laughed and pushed off the railing to begin walking.

However, St. Charlos quickly tired of your novelty and soon ceased to find you interesting for his personal pleasure. He still enjoyed showing you off to his friends, but soon delighted in sharing you around his cadre of World Nobles. Not for free, of course. No, he accepted various presents and trades for the ability to spend time with you. Nymphs were rare, after all, seldom seen by humans much less captured. 

Not only had your wings been kept tightly bound in their shut position, but the nobles he shared you with would sometimes pluck your feathers, making you wince in pain. Your popularity among the World Nobles rose even as you became increasingly injured and sick.A few of the nobles suggested having your wings removed entirely and mounted on their walls, but St. Charlos had sold you to St. Shamrock before that was actualized. You weren’t sure what prompted the sale, but you didn’t dare to think that what was coming was any better than what had been. 

You cringed in your tiny cell, your head ducked defensively behind your arms as you waited for St. Shamrock’s punishment.

Nothing happened. 

You cracked open an eye to see Saint Shamrock still squatting in front of you. He looked different from the painting in St. Charlos’ drawing room. His hair was shorter, he was wearing strange clothes from the Lower World, and he had a scar you didn’t recognize. He also appeared to be missing an arm, but there was no mistaking that face or his flame red hair. You had been sold to St. Shamrock at his personal request, so you’d committed his countenance to memory in order to make the fewest mistakes.

You quickly averted your eyes, fully aware that you weren’t supposed to be looking at him. A warm hand touched the top of your head and you flinched, waiting for the fist to curl and your hair to be grabbed. But the hand only lingered for a moment before moving back beyond the bars of the cell. 

What? What kind of game was this? 

Your heart beat rapidly in your chest, a bead of sweat rolling down your back. You didn’t know what to do, you’d never played this particular game. And when you didn’t know what to do, it always ended badly for you. So you needed to figure out what to do – and fast.

Taking a gamble, you opened your eyes to fully look at your surroundings once more. The hold of the ship was familiar to you, you had been in the cargo hold of a ship for a few weeks along with other slaves. They had all been bound together with a length of chain, shackles at their hands and feet. But you were kept separated from them in a small cage that wasn’t even large enough for you to stretch out completely at night. 

At first your heart held a shred of hope that wherever you were going was better than where you’d been. But realistically, you knew it wasn’t so. The ship was bound for Marie Geoise, and the mood below deck was grim. The crew didn’t have to quell any chatter or rebellion, everyone was biding their time silently. Someone came in daily to feed the slaves, tossing their food at them and setting a plate down in your cell. No matter who it was, they always leered at you. A few hands had reached in, but no one had made contact with you since you were meant for St. Shamrock.

Everything on the ship had been fairly uneventful - you were served one meal a day as the ship rocked back and forth on the stormy seas. You yearned to be in the air, pushing and pulling with the winds, but all you could do was wait. It felt like waiting for your own execution, and perhaps the feeling was not far removed from your future. Only time would tell. So you and the slaves lived quietly in the putrescent hold, like barely sentient cargo.

Until today, when you heard the sounds of a scuffle on the deck. Some slaves pushed to look out the tiny porthole and said they saw another ship, one with a dragon for a figurehead. Even so you receded further into the darkness of your cell and mind, waiting for fate to take its course. What did you care about another ship? The outcome for you would be the same.

After the fighting sounds stopped, the hatch to the hold was flung open, the door slamming against the deck with a bang. Someone announced that you were all to be freed, that you were no longer slaves. The humans looked at one another, unsure what was happening. But sure enough, people were led out of the hold by various humans. Some slaves seemed happy to see them, but you didn’t recognize them more than anyone else. Your ears perked up as you heard the sounds of laughter and chatter coming from the deck, something you hadn’t heard in many months.

Finally, you had hope. A real, true shred of hope. Maybe everything would be ok. Maybe you wouldn’t have to play any more games or attend any more parties. Maybe you wouldn’t die at the hands of a Celestial Dragon or a World Noble. Maybe you could go back home and – your heart stopped the moment Saint Shamrock appeared in the front of the hold. You didn’t see the sneer that was so common on the faces of the nobles, but you weren’t wrong, this was definitely St. Shamrock. 

Oh. 

This was 

a game.

You

Were 

still playing 

Their games.

You weren’t actually being freed. This was an elaborate setup. It wasn’t completely unheard of, the nobles had unlimited time and money on their hands. Maybe this is what they preferred, a more immersive experience. Maybe Saint Shamrock was playing a role and you needed to act your part as well. So this was more of the same, and the same would be expected of you.

You licked your lips – surely he was the one you had to please? Sometimes they changed who you were serving but St. Shamrock was the highest ranking person on the ship. So it had to be him, right? Your hands shook as you kneeled, your hands already gripping the hem of your filthy frock.

“Never heard of a St. Shamrock,” a pirate with dreadlocks commented. You braced for the killing that would surely come to whoever said that. No one ever, ever contradicted or interrupted a Celestial Dragon. But again, nothing came. It only made your shoulders bunch tighter. The unexpected always yielded poor results for you.

“Yeah, I don’t know. Can you get me a cup of water and find the key to this cage,” the man in front of you said softly. Your eyes remained trained downward as you sat back on your heels. He had… requested something? Not demanded like a tyrant? This was the most confusing setup you ever had, but there was only going to be one outcome. Taking a shaky breath, you started the process that would surely be coming shortly.

You began untying the strings of your dress, aware that St. Shamrock would not want you clothed. You didn’t know where they got their information about nymphs, but it was almost completely incorrect. World Nobles believed you to be a sex glutton, your only desire in life to seduce men and have orgies with them. They thought you could heal their wounds, that you were able to turn into a tree, that you and your sisters frolicked about in streams, giggling about nothing. None of that was true, except that you did enjoy spending time with your sisters. 

The few things that they’d gotten right was that your lifespan was longer than theirs and that you couldn’t access your full powers with your wings bound. It was unclear if they knew you had the ability to manipulate the wind or if they just didn’t want you flying away, but they kept your wings tied shut either way. Someone had taken your blood several times but you weren’t sure why. St. Shamrock likely expected you to be completely sex crazed, so you’d play the part he wanted. You had only undone two ties to the sides of your dress before St. Shamrock stopped you.

“Whoa, don’t – don’t untie that. Leave your dress on,” St. Shamrock said softly, like he was gentling an animal. You didn’t understand, but you also weren’t going to disobey him right now. Too many injuries showed you what happened when you disobeyed.

“Take this. Drink,” the man said, passing you the cup his crew mate had brought him. You looked at it for only a moment, hoping it wasn’t drugged. You would still have to drink it even if it was, but you hated every time you were sedated.

“It’s just water,” St. Shamrock assured you in a low tone. You gulped it down greedily, savoring the fresh, cold water. After you were finished, you handed him back the cup, your fingertips accidentally grazing his own. He smiled at you, the corners of his eyes creasing. You blinked – no human had ever smiled at you before. Not like that, with no hint of malice or cruelty. You’d never spent time with humans prior to your capture, and what you’d seen of them didn’t make you want to continue the experience. St. Shamrock sat down outside your cage cross-legged, like he had done this a thousand times over. 

“Do you know where you are? Who I am?” Saint Shamrock asked. You nodded quickly, wanting to answer all his questions well.

“You are my n-new Master, St. Shamrock. I was a-awaiting your arrival,” you whispered, barely able to choke out the words he likely wanted to hear. Your voice was cracking due to the weeks of disuse, but you persevered. St. Shamrock shook his head, a shred of sunlight winking across his facial scars.

“I am not Shamrock and I am not your new Master. You are free,” he said to you, his hand reaching towards your face. You flinched but quickly opened your eyes, your Masters didn’t like when you flinched. 

“I am Red Haired Shanks, Emperor of the Sea, Captain of the Red Haired Pirates,” he said, pushing back his black cloak. The action highlighted that he was missing his left arm, unlike the portrait you’d seen of St. Shamrock. You blinked a few times, assimilating the information into your mind. Your brows hitched in confusion – you wished he would tell you what he wanted from you. 

You looked at his face again, cocking your own slightly to the side. His smile returned, feeling like the rays of the sun skittering across your skin. Something unfurled in your heart, something that you needed to tamp down lest it hurt you in the future. There was no comfort to be had from humans, not even ones who smiled at you kindly. He was your new master, regardless of whatever lies he said.

“So, what are you?”

Shanks POV

Shanks was a decisive man by nature. He often came to a rapid conclusion in his mind and seldom deviated from it. His quick choices had served him well in the past, during both fighting and peacetime. He’d trained his gut instincts during his time on the Oro, and honed them to perfection over his many years of pirating.

And yet Shanks had no idea what to do with you.

"Please, Saint Shamrock! I'm sorry I'll behave I promise I won't-" Shanks took a step back, as if burned by your words. Your instinct to protect yourself upon his arrival had shocked him. He was one of the strongest people in the world and yet your simple words injured him more than losing his arm had. 

You think he’s one of them? That he’s like his brother? Or perhaps that he is his brother…

It wasn’t your fault, and Shanks wasn’t upset at you for the outburst. Even now you were wringing your hands and staring steadfastly at the floor, as if awaiting corporal punishment. You were in a pitiful state, your skin sallow and ashy, mottled with bruises and dried blood. 

So Shanks sat down on the floor of the cargo hold in front of you, wracking his brain on what he should do. Usually, when they caught ships slaving through his territory, they killed the crew and set the slaves free. Gave them some supplies if needed, sometimes some money, maybe gave them a log pose if it had broken during the takeover. Catch and release. Easy, helped people, kept Roger’s legacy alive, ruined the finances of slavers, showed the strength of his territory – it was a win all around. 

Except.

No one had ever named his twin brother before, much less thought he was the same person. You were obviously not faring well, certainly worse than the other slaves. Anyone could see you weren’t in good health – your skin sickly and with bruises poking out from under your thin dress. You hadn’t celebrated with the rest of the freed slaves, instead huddling further into yourself. Maybe you’d been held in captivity longer, or had a worse experience. Anything was possible with Nobles.

Yasopp brought him the recovered key to the cage along with the water. Shanks thanked him briefly and turned his attention back to you.

But how had you known about Shamrock? Shanks frowned as he thought about how to help you, absently scratching his goatee. Your eyes widened even further, your chest rising and falling even faster. Shanks immediately relaxed even further, trying to put you at ease. Clearly, his displeasure was causing you distress, so he affected an air of comfortability. 

After you revealed that you were a nymph – and not just any nymph, but an air nymph – Shanks didn’t know what you would need in order to recuperate. Of all the things Shanks had expected to find on a shitty Celestial Dragon merchant ship, an Aurai wasn’t one of them. Shanks had never even heard of Aurai before now. Shanks noticed your beautiful wings, bound painfully behind you. Based on how they cut into your body, he had no doubt they were exceedingly painful. One more thing to learn about, he supposed.

He’d heard of nymphs, of course, but hadn’t met a single one during his voyages on the seas. They were notoriously difficult to find, much less catch. Roger said he had seen a group of mountain nymphs bathing once but they had run away before he could talk to them. 

“How can I help you? Do you need something from me?” Shanks asked softly. The door to your cage had been opened but you’d made no move to exit. You’d been trained not to try to escape, and Shanks was certain the methods were inhumane. He didn’t see the branding, but that didn’t mean much.

“N-no, p-please. I’ll - I’ll start, Master-” you stuttered, starting to crawl towards him. Shanks looked at you in confusion, his eyebrows furrowing as you made your way to him. What in the world…

“Wh-what? No, don’t do that-” You had crawled towards him, your nimble fingers already halfway done with unbuckling his belt before he could stop you. With his mild reproach, your face drained of blood. You wrung your hands together, tears filling your eyes. 

“I - I want to play, Master. Please, I’ll do anything. Anything you want, just please don’t hurt me,” you begged. What had they done to you? Shanks was more worried than ever that your mind was broken. He couldn’t send you to the next island in good conscience. Unlike the other slaves they’d already freed, you clearly hadn’t been used as a laborer but as a pleasure slave. Shanks shuddered to think of what that entailed, but the damage was clearly severe. 

“Why don’t we go up to the deck?” Shanks suggested. He was going to take you off this ship, that was certain, but he’d have to do so in small steps. “Would you like that?” Your eyes flicked warily to him, as if you were unsure what the right answer would be.

“I’m not your master, you get to decide,” he said easily, resting his chin in his palm. Shanks kept his posture relaxed, like he would be fine with whatever you said. Really, being in the slave hold made his skin crawl, but he’d stick around here until you were ready to go. After another moment, you gave a minute nod, but Shanks really wanted you to regain your voice.

“Alright, let’s hit it,” he said encouragingly, giving you a smile. Shanks winced at his own poor choice of words, but at least you didn’t seem to notice. You nodded again, your face still void of positive emotion. He stood up slowly, still slouching a little to make you feel at ease. After watching him carefully, you repeated his action, standing up as far as you could and hobbling out of the cell. Shanks padded over to the ladder out of the hold, stopping as he approached the exit.

“Can you climb the ladder? Are you strong enough? I don’t mean to be rude, but if you need help going out, I can –” you averted your eyes as Shanks spoke, shaking your head vigorously. You crossed your arms over your chest as you waited, making yourself smaller as you studied the floor. 

The ship bobbed in the waves, making you take a half step towards him to stabilize yourself. You were now closer than you’d ever been to him, your mere presence alluring. Without thinking, Shanks reached out to touch your soft, downy wing, before retracting his hand immediately. He’d have to curb his own impulses and wait until you were ready, if ever, to be touched by a human. He steeled his resolve to help you, to heal you and get you back to wherever you were from. 

“No - well, yes. That’s a little too – he’s like my father. It would be weird for me – but, then again it might be hot – er, wait, no. Not that. Sunny, did you mean it when you said that you love me?” Sabo asked, his voice scarcely more than a whisper. You picked your head off his chest and gave him a frown.

“Of course I meant it,” you replied. “Why would I say it if I didn’t mean it?”

“You were pretty out of it. You couldn’t tell what was real and what was a hallucination. And I know that you said it again after you knew I was real but…” Sabo began to explain before you cut him off with a wave of your hand.

“That wouldn’t change how I feel. I said it to Dream Sabo all the time. I meant it just as much as I do now,” you scoffed and laid your head back down on his chest.

“Say it again,” Sabo prompted softly, his flesh hand winding into the hair on your nape. It wasn’t a command, his words more like a plea. You cracked open your eyes again and looked up at him through your lashes.

“I love you, Sabo,” you said dreamily, splaying your hand across his chiseled chest. Sabo shifted you in his arms, tugging you up higher so your face was next to his own.

“I love you too, Sunny. I never thought I’d get to hear you say it,” he replied with a small smile, leaning in to kiss you again. Your arms wound around him loosely before kissing his back, your fingers loosely gripping his skin. It was less sexy that they were all still bandaged, but you would take what you could get.

“I love you, Real Sabo. And I’ll say it as many times as I have to,” you replied dreamily, setting your head back down. 

“Stop calling me Real Sabo. I’m the only Sabo there is,” Sabo said a bit petulantly. You laughed a bit before closing your eyes again. All that was left was to fall asleep, enjoy each other once more when you woke up, before you went off to your lab to work. Now that Sabo was back you would be able to handle things a lot more easily. Sabo would help you and everything would be better, like it was before.

“But, Sunny, I want to talk to you about something else. You can’t work yourself to death anymore. Not even if something were to happen to me,” Sabo said, his nails dragging up and down your bare back. You groaned, you didn’t want to have this discussion right now. You rolled off Sabo and on to your back, rubbing your forehead with the heel of your palm.

“Sabo, I love you –”

“I love you too –” Sabo replied easily, turning on his side to face you. Despite having heard it before, your face heated. How was it still so easy for Sabo to rile you up?  You shook your head a little, you needed to focus on what was important. Despite everything that had happened, your resolve to help fix what the World Government had done was unmovable. 

“Right, but what I’m saying is – I love you, but there’s things I have to get done. Things that are bigger than you or me, or anything else. The World Government, their weapon – this is a turning point in history, Sabo. Now that Vegapunk isn’t around, I need to fix things. For everyone. This is exactly like when I was in the Marines and I unknowingly contributed to the SMILE program –”

“This isn’t like that at all –”

“Yes it is,” you said, sitting up in exasperation. “How aren't you seeing that this is my responsibility? That I need to fix everything – that the Mother Flame can be used to power the weapons and that the only other people – I mean, Vegapunk is dead now so it might just be one person – well, on our side – actually, I’m not really too sure he’s dead. I know they killed his body, but he’s too smart for such a vulnerability. He would have – but in any event, I can’t stop  working, Sabo. I can’t.” Your mind was spinning as you tried to have Sabo understand the magnitude of what you had uncovered in your research. 

“Sunny, stop –” Sabo said, cupping your cheek with his hand. You pulled away – this wasn’t the time for him to coddle you. 

“No, Sabo. This is important,” you stressed, looking at his good eye with your own. Sabo tilted his head, as if considering your point for the first time. It almost reminded you of when you had first discovered what your research in the Marines was being used for, and how no one would tell you that the consequences were your fault. Ace had chased you down the beach, but even his heart to heart hadn’t really dislodged the feeling that you had contributed to mass suffering in the world.

“I understand. I really do. It’s the same fire that fuels all of us here. But you’re not on your own anymore. You have me and everyone else who is fighting alongside you,” Sabo said. You forced a smile, which based on Sabo’s growing frown was not all that successful at deceiving him.

“Sunny, it’s true –” You sighed and grimaced, your face now matching your true feelings. You put your hands up began to gesticulate as you articulated your thoughts. You’d always done it, but it had really gone into overdrive once Sabo had left and you dismissed everyone.

“I mean, that’s nice of you to say. But I really don’t think – everyone was trying, I know that. And I was angry – er, mostly lashing out..which isn’t their fault, I know that. But they can’t – they don’t understand how to get to the innate workings – it’s really, really complicated, Sabo. This is the hardest project I’ve ever worked on. I don’t even know if I’m gonna be able to figure it out –”

“You don’t have to figure it out. No one is making you, like when you were in the Marines. We can defeat the World Government without the Mother Flame or ancient weapons, there’s more than one answer to the problem,” Sabo said softly. You sucked in a breath, trying to unscramble your brain before you tried again. Sabo understood and was listening, but he wasn’t really hearing you. 

“And you’re not alone. Like I said, you have me, Koala, Dragon, Ahiru, Kurasu, Iva, Mark, and everyone else here. We don’t need to understand what you’re doing in order to support you. But, you won’t be able to help anyone if you don’t take care of yourself. Look at you,” Sabo said softly, pulling the blanket down a little. Your fingers twitched with the need to pull it back up. It wasn’t that you were self conscious about your body, not exactly. Sabo knew what you looked like generally, but you weren’t exactly at your best right now.

“You’ve lost so much weight, your fingers are a mess, you haven’t been sleeping, you haven’t been drinking water…”

“Yeah, I know. You already said all that, I get it,” you said with a pout. You hadn’t noticed those things when they’d been happening but now that Sabo kept bringing it up, it was weighing on you. He’d gone after you before for the same behaviors, was he going to do something about it now? You closed your eyes and sighed, wishing you had handled things differently. “Don’t punish me or anything. I don’t think I can take it,” you murmured from behind your closed eyelids.

“I’m going to have to. You knew the rules,” Sabo said, stroking your cheek with a finger. With that, your eyes popped open as you thought of Sabo’s previous punishments. Maybe this time wouldn’t be so bad…maybe some more manhandling or more kissing…those didn’t sound too awful. You didn’t think that Sabo would put you in seastone again, you were fairly sure that was off the table. You licked your lips and looked at his frowning face, wiggling yourself closer to him to try to get a favorable outcome. A wave of exhaustion hit you as you laid there, you hoped you could do your punishment after you took a short nap. You brought your hand up to rub at your left eye, it was always itchy when you were nervous.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you were able to enforce them anymore,” you said as Sabo stopped you from rubbing your eye. Goddamn it, that was an annoyance you’d forgotten about. Dream Sabo never stopped you from rubbing, you thought with a scowl.

“I told you I’d come back. Have more faith in me,” Sabo said with a wide grin. You sighed, there was no getting out of this it seemed. 

“Is it gonna be a sex thing? Because I could handle a little bit of –”

“No. You’re going to apologize to everyone for what you did when I was gone.” Your mouth dropped open at Sabo’s words.

Fuck.

“Wh- no. No, Sabo, come on. They know I’m sorry,” you pouted as Sabo held your hand. Now that Sabo had made his declaration that you would be saying sorry to everyone, you knew you wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep. The idea of having to say that many apologies to that many people was making you want to gag from the sheer amount of interaction alone. Besides, some of the things you could remember doing were rather…embarassing.

“No. You have to actually say it. It’s important to maintain good working relations among the ranks. You’re a senior officer –”

“I’m not an officer. No one reports to me anymore,” you whined as Sabo ignored you. God, you forgot about how obstinate he could be when he wanted to be. Maybe Dream Sabo could return and defend you from Real Sabo’s antics.

“We’ll remedy that too. But for right now, you’re still a notable figure. And you need to take accountability for your mistakes. It’s a lesson all leaders need to learn,” he concluded with a bright smile. 

“I’m not a leader –”

“You are. And this is your punishment. I think it’s fitting,” Sabo said, tucking some of your hair behind your ear. “I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“Fine. I guess I can…apologize to everyone,” you grumbled, already thinking about the many, many unpleasant conversations you were about to have.

Sabo POV

“C’mon, It’s almost dinner time. We can go to the mess hall and start with whoever we see there,” Sabo urged gently, rubbing his hand up and down your back. You gave him a nervous look, your fingers balled into fists. Your shoulders were hiked to your ears as you nibbled on your lip, likely thinking about all the people who would need apologies.

It wasn’t completely a bad idea to start now either, Sabo thought. He wanted to get some food into you and dinner looked like it was going to be tasty. You had clearly deprived yourself of nutrients in his absence and you needed to eat. You had always eaten more when you were with Sabo, and he’d have to direct effort into ensuring that you regained the weight you had lost. Sabo had promised to take care of you and he took his responsibility seriously. He’d unintentionally caused you harm by nearly dying, and now he was going to work to remedy it. 

Sabo grinned at you as you nodded hesitantly, happy that he wouldn’t have to march you into the dining hall like a prisoner. He would if he had to, but it would look better if you did it of your own volition.

And it really was for the best that you apologized to everyone. He had meant what he said earlier – there were many people who you could depend on in the Revolutionary Army. Even with your escapades, it was clear that people respected you a great deal. And based on what Dragon had told him, you hadn’t truly harmed anyone. So a few apologies and everyone would feel better about you. People in the RA generally didn’t hold grudges, water under the bridge and all that.

You stopped in front of the doors to the dining room, rubbing your hands together to shore your resolve. A newer recruit was walking by, though she tried to sidestep and leave when she saw you and Sabo standing in front of the doors.

“No need to be shy. Come on over,” Sabo said with a bright smile, encouraging the nervous woman with a wave of his hand. Sabo had hired her himself before he left, she had an interesting devil fruit, though he couldn’t remember off the top of his head what it was. 

“H-hi,” the new recruit said, extending a few of her fingers upwards in an approximation of a greeting. You cocked your head and squinted, like you couldn’t place who she was.

“Hello. I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m –”

“We have. Dragon sent me to you once, to try to get you to sleep. You, uh, shrank my head,” the woman said, trying to back away. Ah, that’s what it was. She was the owner of the sleep sleep fruit. You flushed furiously, your eyes flicking to Sabo before looking back at the young woman. Sabo inserted himself between you, ready to start remediating the situation. 

“And Sunny is –” Sabo began the process, but you quickly picked up the rest of it for him. 

“I - I’m sorry. I apologize for shrinking you –”

“Not all of me. Just my head,” the woman clarified, looking behind her nervously.

“That’s worse – uh, I’m sorry. You appear to be regularly shaped now, so I must have, uh, reversed it?” you asked, biting your lip as you took a step forward. The woman took a step back, her hands up defensively.

“It’s alright! Yes, you did reverse the situation. I, uh, accept! I definitely accept! And…I think I hear Morley calling for me,” she said quickly, pretending to strain her hearing. There was clearly no one calling for her but the woman slid inside the dining hall, away from you. You hung your head, sighing and rubbing your forehead.

“Well, at least it can’t get worse than that,” Sabo said lightly.

It did get worse than that. It seemed like you had fought half the RA in some way or another during his time away from you. You had won every “fight” to keep working alone in your lab. But it hadn’t won you any popularity awards, Sabo had to force people to interact with you. Even worse, you didn’t even remember everything that you’d done. It was honestly impressive, if not a little funny at times. 

But the effort of so much interaction was clearly weighing on you by the fifteenth or so apology. Sabo had gotten the two of you food and was sitting next to you, watching you push your noodles around your plate. Sabo reached out to rub your shoulder, feeling the large knots on your back caused by stress.

“It’s alright. We can do more later,” Sabo said, putting his hand over your own. Your movements stilled as you leaned into him. 

“Yeah. You were right about the apologies. I was worse than I remembered,” you said, rubbing your forehead against his shoulder. 

“We can go back to the dorms, I think you should go to sleep –”

“I need to call Ace,” you said with a yawn.

“He can wait until tomorrow. He’s probably sailing right now anyway, he wouldn’t pick up his den den,” Sabo lied easily. He wasn’t actually sure what Ace was up to right now, but you needed to go back to sleep now that you’d eaten a little bit.

“Where’s he going?” you asked, dropping your hands into your lap.

“You can find out tomorrow,” Sabo said, removing himself from the table. He extended his hand to you, helping you up from where you were seated.

“No. Today. I’m on a roll and I wanna get this worked out. It’s bothering me. He called me a few times, I don’t want him to worry,” you said, stifling another yawn. Sabo hummed as he picked you up, carrying you out of the dining hall. 

“I c’n walk,” you huffed, though Sabo noted you didn’t protest more than that. Either you were more inured to him carrying you than he thought, or you were really that tired. Regardless, you settled against him as easily as the last time. Sabo could get used to this, and based on how boneless you felt in his arms, so could you. 

Which was why shortly thereafter, you were sitting up next to Sabo in bed as Sabo called Ace. He’d contacted his brother after his arrival on the island, but Ace hadn’t been particularly surprised to hear that Sabo was alive. 

Puru puru puru   puru puru puru   puru puru puru

“BABO!” Ace-snail yelled out merrily, waving its little hands. Sabo smiled, it was always fun to call Ace when he was in a good mood. “Have you seen Sunny? I tried calling her but –”

“I’m here, Ace,” you said sheepishly, poking your head out from behind Sabo.

“Sunnifer! My sunniest sunshiney Sunflower!” Ace whooped, before shoving some kind of meat skewer into his mouth.

“I’m sorry for not returning your calls, Ace. You were probably worried –” you began, already back in apology mode. Ace waved you off, not caring in the least. 

“I was worried about you, yeah. Not Sabo, if that’s what you’re asking,” Ace said, talking with his mouth full of half chewed food. “But I called Dragon once and he said you were alive –” Sabo frowned, that was not enough. Ace had promised to look after you if anything had happened to him, and one call to Dragon didn’t cut it.

“And I knew Sabo would come back, so I wasn’t too concerned. I figured if I called enough times, you’d eventually answer,” he said with a shrug. Now it was your turn to frown.

“Wait, Ace, how many times did you call?” Sabo asked, putting his arm around your shoulders.

“Sixty six, I think? Something like that. Once every day or two,” Ace replied, the snail now looking down at something beyond the sight of the call. You flushed a bit and licked your lips. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was that many times,” you began to say, bringing a hand up to your mouth. Sabo intercepted it, bringing your hand to his face to kiss your poor little destroyed fingers. Maybe he could see if Marco was with Ace, and they could swing by the RA to heal you a little…

“Yeah, but like I said, I didn’t mind. Sabo was gonna find you eventually and everything would work out,” Ace said, the snail’s hands pushing on something.

“You knew because of the vivre cards, right? You know how I feel about those –”

“No, not the vivre card. That helped too, but this time it was ASL ESP. I could have told you the whole time he was gone that Sabo was fine,” Ace said, his attention focusing back on you to give you a wide grin.

“What.”

“ASL ESP,” Ace repeated, this time more slowly. “ESP is when you can –”

“I know what ESP is. It’s not real,” you protested, sitting up higher in the bed. Sabo smiled to himself, Ace really was good at baiting you. It wasn’t Ace’s intention right now, but no one could bring you out of a funk faster than Ace telling you some garbage to make you rage.

“It is so. Then how else would I know Sabo was ok?” Ace asked, his smile turning into a smirk. 

“Somehow you’ve found something even less scientifically viable than vivre papers,” you said, pinching the bridge of your nose in exasperation. Sabo couldn’t exactly explain it, but Ace did seem to have some preternatural way of knowing when his brothers were in trouble or needed help. Sabo didn’t need to bother you with that information, but there was something to Ace’s gut reactions.

“It works, though. That’s how I knew I had to get to Wano and I was right about that. Speaking of – ‘Bo, we gotta get to Elbaf. Lu is gonna need us both, I can feel it. I’m already getting Striker Plus One ready,” Ace said, turning serious for a moment. Sabo frowned, thinking for a moment. He had spoken with Robin a few weeks earlier, but he didn’t know the Strawhats had set sail for Elbaf.

“What’s Striker Plus One?” you asked, your head cocked to the side.

“I modified Striker and made it much bigger, with Deuce’s help. Now I can have Yamato, Izou, Deuce, and Marco on it at the same time. More people than that, but that’s who’s here now. It's actually a lot bigger, closer in size to the Spadille. It’s basically like having –”

“A crew again,” Sabo interrupted, giving his brother a soft smile. Ace scowled, pulling his hat down over his eyes in embarrassment. 

“Then why is it ‘Plus One’? Shouldn’t it be ‘Plus Five’? Or a whole different name?” you asked, tugging on your lip.

“Because Striker Plus Five sounds bad, duh,” Ace said with a roll of his eyes. 

“Captain gets to name the ship,” Sabo said in agreement, making Ace’s face flame once more.

“ ‘M not the Captain –”

“Yo, where do you want these extra ropes, Cap?” Deuce’s voice rang out.

“Under the hatch in the front of the ship,” Ace replied. “But that doesn’t mean anything! Deuce always called me that since we were in the Spade Pirates together!” Ace said with a finger raised.

“I think it’s great, Ace,” Sabo said, wishing he could hug his brother through the snail. “I’m glad you’re back with a crew. I think it’s good for you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Just gonna pick up a few of the old guys before we head over to Elbaf. Lu prolly has about a month of sailing still, but I don’t wanna miss too much of the action. Something big is gonna go down, and I wanna be there for him when it does,” Ace declared, his attention back on Sabo. 

Sabo frowned – he wasn’t as good at ASL ESP as Ace, but he had felt the tuggings before as well. It was what had led him to Dressrosa to fight for the Mera Mera and to help Luffy with Fujitora. And a new feeling was unfurling in Sabo’s gut, just like Ace was saying. Ace was right, they had to meet Luffy in Elbaf. 

“Isn’t he much stronger than both of you? And doesn’t he have an Emperor’s crew? Do you really have to go?” you asked, picking at a loose string on your pants and worrying it between your fingers. Sabo covered your hand with his own, not wanting you to feel anxious about the upcoming event. 

“He’s insanely strong. And I think a literal god now?” Ace said, scratching his head. “But we’re his brothers, I’d do anything for him. And he helped me back in Marineford when I was ready to die. So I’m going to Elbaf. And Sabo should too,” Ace declared. Sabo looked over at your wan face and made a decision.

“Thanks, Ace. We’ll talk again soon,” Sabo said, already reaching to hang up.

“Don’t be a stranger, my Sunshine!” Ace said with a wave of his hand, the snail falling asleep seconds later as Sabo pushed on the button to end the call.

Your POV

Your heart sank as Ace had said he and Sabo had to go to Elbaf. By now you understood that the brothers had a profound bond and that nothing would come between them. You could be friends with Ace, and lovers with Sabo, but that would always pale in comparison to the relationship between them. 

And really, what were you expecting? For Sabo, the chief of staff of the Revolutionary Army, to stay with you on one island forever playing house? No, that wasn’t realistic. You had gotten your prayers answered by Sabo being alive, but there wasn’t a way to contain him for long. Sabo had his destiny to fulfill and you had work to do. Hopefully you got at least another day with Sabo before his departure, but you would understand if that wasn’t the case. 

You laid down in the bed, turning away from Sabo. It felt a little bratty, but that really wasn’t your intention. You weren’t trying to punish Sabo, you just needed a few minutes to yourself to recalibrate to the new situation. Sabo was going to leave again, you would continue working, and everything would be the same as before. It almost felt like when Ace left for Wano, but you had even less acclimation time than before. And you’d really try to keep yourself from falling in your old pitfalls like the last time. You didn’t want to become one more burden for Sabo to worry about while he was gone saving the world. 

“What are you thinking right now?” Sabo asked, laying down next to you and hauling your back against his chest. 

“How long do you think you have until you leave?” you asked, looking out the window. The moon was rising, giving you something pleasant to look at while your mind reeled.

“Hmm. I’ll contact Nami and see where they are. But based on what Ace was saying, I’ll probably want us to leave within a day or two,” Sabo answered, his fingers lightly stroking your thigh. You nodded, already making a list of everything you wanted to get done before Sabo left again. He’d said no to sex in Dragon’s office, but maybe you could drag him in there anyway…

“Sunny, did you hear me?” Sabo asked. You nodded again as a tear leaked out of the corner of your eye. 

“Yeah, you’re likely leaving tomorrow. I understand,” you said quietly, not wanting to make things harder than they had to be. You had heard this story a thousand times before when you were in the Marines – the painful separation of lovers, the yearning, the pining, the letters written and devoured in private. At the time you hadn’t really understood why people would want to make something like that work, but now it was you having the tearful goodbye.

“C’mere,” Sabo said, rolling you over to face him. You looked up at him with a watery smile, you didn’t want Sabo to feel guilty.

“It’s ok, I get it –”

“Sunny, I’m taking you with me. We’re going together,” Sabo asserted. Your brow furrowed with this news.

“But…but…you – Ace said that you need to go to Elbaf,” you protested.

“He did. And you’re coming with me.” Your breathing stopped as you blinked rapidly. 

“It’s not n-nice to tease me,” you said, rubbing away another tear. You sat up and rubbed your forehead. If he was joking right now, you would completely shatter. Sabo sat up and crossed his legs before pulling you into his lap.

“I’m not teasing. I don’t want to leave you again. And I think your powers will be useful in Elbaf. It’s the land of giants and you’re the expert in shrinking and magnifying–” You couldn’t believe what you were hearing – Sabo was going to bring you to Elbaf?

“But- I get seasick,” you said, your eyes looking into his own. It was the first question on the top of your mind and it burbled out before you could stop it. Sabo hummed as he thought.

“I know. It will be tough, especially now that you’re less healthy than I’d like. But we worked through it last time. I’ll bring more medication. And we’ll have to really keep on top of your hydration,” Sabo said, wrapping his arms around you. 

“And my work –”

“Take the lab. You can shrink it now, bring it with you. Maybe Robin or Franky will be able to help you –”

“B-but you said I’m not strong enough to come –” you replied, relaying a persistent fear you’d carried in your heart.

“Based on what I heard in the messhall, you’re a lot stronger than you used to be. And Ace and I will protect you. Luffy too. Not everyone needs to be a top fighter to be useful,” Sabo said, twirling your hair through his fingers.

“S-Sabo,” you said, more tears falling down your cheeks. This time they weren’t due to sadness, but overwhelming happiness.

“We’re going together. I need you –”

“Because I can’t take c-care of myself?” you asked, hiccuping through the tears that kept falling.

“No. Because I love you and can’t bear to be apart from you,” Sabo said, cupping your face. You laughed and sniffled before closing the distance and giving Sabo a long kiss. He pulled you closer, your legs now straddling his waist. You kissed Sabo with all the passion, love, and desire you could muster, chasing high after high with him. Sabo broke the kiss as you continued to kiss up and down his neck, taking his top hat off and tossing it on the floor across the room.

“And I hear their Owl Library has all of the knowledge salvaged from Ohara –”

“Why didn’t you start with that?!” you asked with a buoyant laugh. Sabo wiped the remaining tears from your face with his thumb before kissing you again.

“I’ll always be with you, Sunny. For as long as you’ll have me,” Sabo said reverently.

“Forever.”

And really, Nanami only had himself to blame for Gojo snooping on his little secret. Kento knew what Gojo was like. If Nanami really wanted to keep you off Gojo’s radar, he would have introduced you once in passing and Gojo would have let things go. Then Gojo’s curiosity would have been satisfied and he wouldn’t have thought any more about Nanami’s mystery wife. But as it was, Nanami seemed to want to keep you separate from his Jujutsu life. Or maybe just from Gojo. 

Which was how Gojo found himself watching you from outside Nanami’s city apartment. It hadn’t been completely intentional, not exactly. Nanami had blown Gojo off yet again, saying that he had plans to eat with you after he got off work. And this time, Gojo wasn't going to take no for an answer.

So he’d tailed Nanami from afar after school was out for the day, using his techniques to find out exactly who this woman was that held so much power over the reserved Nanami Kento. And even though Nanami wasn’t at Gojo’s level, he wasn’t a slouch either. Gojo concealed himself and his energy signature behind a veil and waited for Nanami to go home. It was annoying, to say the least, but it was finally time to rip the band-aid off and meet you.

All Gojo really wanted was to get one good look at you in order to understand what was happening here.  Gojo’s entire plan was to watch Nanami go into his apartment, then Gojo would come in through the balcony as a surprise. He would introduce himself, watch Nanami get annoyed, and leave. There wasn’t much more to it than that, a simple stop to figure out which woman had Nanami Kento wrapped around her finger. Maybe a drink if Nanami offered one, but Gojo didn’t think that was likely to happen given that Nanami didn’t seem to enjoy Gojo’s company generally. And clearly didn’t want Gojo around his wife.

And after seeing you for the first time, Gojo understood.

You were an absolute stunner.

And it wasn’t just about looks, though you certainly didn’t lack in that department. You were gorgeous and pretty, a real class act. Any man would want you by his side for your beauty, but it wasn’t only that. It was clear that there was something real between you and Nanami, more than simple affection. There was something rare and precious, something not even Gojo’s money could buy. 

It was love. 

You were waiting for Nanami as he came in from jujutsu high. Gojo watched as you practically threw yourself into his arms after he flung his briefcase aside so he could catch you. (The very same briefcase that Gojo had gotten an earful for touching, mind you). Nanami smiled, years easing off his face as he twirled you in a small circle. You squealed as he set you on your feet, wrapping your arms around his neck to pull him in for a kiss. 

Gojo knew Nanami spent every night in his apartment rather than at the school, it couldn’t have been longer than a day since the two of you had last seen each other. And yet you were acting like you hadn’t seen him in years, like you were starving for him. Your relationship was evident in the way that you looked at Nanami like he was your everything, your entire world. The affection between you was so thick, Gojo could practically cut it with a knife. You held on to Nanami’s bicep like it was your lifeline, listening and laughing quietly as the two of you conversed in hushed tones.

At this point, Gojo should have left. Now he knew what you looked like, he understood why Nanami rushed home every single day, and the mystery was solved. Gojo’s curiosity was satisfied and he got the whole picture. He'd tease Nanami about you tomorrow and try and finagle an dinner for the three of you at an expensive restaurant one day. It should have been done there.

But.

After Nanami stopped spinning you, he kept his muscular arm around your back and pulled you to his chest. He leaned down and kissed you passionately, opening his mouth to deepen the kiss. You tilted your head up towards him, moaning slightly as Nanami’s other hand wound itself into your hair and angled your head. Nanami kissed you like you were the air he needed to breathe, like he couldn’t survive another moment without you. One of your hands cupped Nanami's jaw, stroking his skin tenderly.

After a few moments like that, Nanami picked you up in one arm, which made you squeal in delight. Your feet dangled as he carried you towards the small island in the middle of the kitchen, you clearly felt safe with Nanami. He set you down and quickly began kissing you again, his hands planted on either side of your legs. You began to take off his tie, your smaller fingers working quickly to undo the buttons of his formal shirt. Nanami's shirt was soon open, and your fingers raked down his chiseled abs.

Gojo knew he was watching something intimate, something beyond private, but he couldn’t tear himself away. His dick was painfully hard against his pants, throbbing with every small movement and sound that you made together. Gojo palmed his aching cock over his clothes, not wanting to touch himself further despite the fact that no one could see him through the veil. It was enough for Gojo to know he was peeking, he didn’t need to make himself a complete pervert. As it was, Gojo could barely believe the passionate man in front of him was the same one who had yelled at Gojo earlier that day for being reckless and foolish. 

Nanami! Boring, stodgy, uptight Nanami! And here he was gently pushing you, his incredibly hot wife, backwards onto the kitchen island, caging you in with one arm. The skirt you were wearing was now pooled around your middle, leaving your divine legs on display. Nanami leaned over you, his blond hair falling in front of his face. Nanami said something in a low tone, making you laugh and wind your legs around his trim waist. You pushed the hair off his face and smiled up at him, pulling him down to kiss you once again. 

Now that your back was flat on the counter, Nanami’s hand ran up your exposed leg all the way to the apex of your thighs, before teasing your pussy over your panties with his long fingers. The damp spot in the middle of your panties told a story of its own. Nanami used his free hand to push up your shirt and tease your nipples over your lacy bra. You pulled him closer with your legs, planting open mouthed kisses on his neck and chest as Nanami’s fingers stroked you slowly. Your back arched as your eyes closed, your fingers scrabbling against his muscled back.

Gojo adjusted himself in his pants, much to his own embarrassment. He was Gojo Satoru, for fuck’s sake. He had slept with more women than he could ever count! He was powerful, and smart, and strong, and wealthy! Gojo could find a date within seconds if he so chose, he didn’t need to be watching Nanami hooking up with his wife. He was no random pervert, he was a grade S sorcerer, the sorcerer with the six eyes and infinity, the Strongest! 

And yet Gojo couldn’t look away as Nanami’s fingers slipped under the band of your panties, pulling them down your legs. Nanami gently removed them for you, bringing them to his face and inhaling deeply before setting them aside. You whined, your need for your husband growing by the second. Your legs opened wide as your hands reached for Nanami’s belt...

But Nanami didn’t allow you to open it. Instead, he kissed you again, before pulling away and walking to the balcony window.

For a moment, Gojo thought that Nanami had spotted him. There was no way to explain what Gojo was doing outside Nanami's apartment. And Gojo would rather be sealed into a million prison realms than admit he was perving on Nanami getting it on with his hot wife. But instead Nanami grabbed the pole attached to the shades, pulling them halfway closed before looking out the window. Gojo let out a small breath, Nanami didn't suspect anything.

“Just closing the curtains, dearest," Nanami said clearly, his gaze piercing exactly where Gojo was hiding behind the veil. Gojo’s heart froze as Nanami smirked, shutting the shades completely.

“C’mon, Usagi,” Toji beckoned to you, curling his fingers into his palm. The gesture had a few drops of blood splattering on the floor. You got up and shuffled over to Toji, unsure if you could meet his gaze right now. Gojo – a high school student – was killed, and it was all your fault. 

“Someone’s gotta let her out. You, right? You’re S grade, yeah? So you can do it,” Toji demanded from Geto, who was rapidly paling. The other two younger students were looking at one another, the blond’s grasp on his sword tightening. You didn’t know what they were thinking but you hoped they wouldn’t try to fight Toji. If he’d defeated Gojo and Geto, none of the rest of them would stand a chance. But before Geto could respond, Shoko’s voice sounded out from outside the window.

“Geto, come here quickly!” Shoko’s panicked voice rang out. You weren’t sure what was happening but based on her tone, it was nothing good. 

“NOW!” Shoko screamed. With Shoko’s second yell, Geto bolted out of the room without care for his massive healing wound. The younger two students followed suit, running out the door. That left only you and Toji in the now quiet room. You didn’t really know what to say, what the appropriate words for someone who came to save you from being kidnapped. You licked your lips and settled on the simplest – there’d be time for more words later.

“Thank you, Toji,” you said, finally looking him in the face. He gave you an easy smirk that made your stomach flip. 

“No problem. Hadta get you back, yanno?” he replied, leaning against the doorframe. “C’mon, let’s get going. Gooms is with Shiu again and I think he’s gonna kill him if we don’t get back –”

“THROUGHOUT HEAVEN AND EARTH, I ALONE AM THE HONORED ONE,” you heard a voice yell from outside the room. Toji’s eyes narrowed as his smile fell. 

“C’mon. I’m not gonna leave you again,” Toji said, extending his calloused hand to you. Between that and his declaration that he needed to get you back, your heart was beating quickly. You were sure that it was only talk, just an easy way to express what he needed to. But even so, you didn’t think Naoya would ever say anything like that about you. If anything, he probably would have punished you for being kidnapped by Gojo. He still might if he found out what happened. You extended your smaller hand to Toji’s, but his fingers encircled your wrist instead of taking it in his own. 

“No time. Something’s happening. Gonna carry you,” he said, quickly pulling you close to him and picking you up bridal style. It all happened so quickly that you didn’t have a moment to consider how you felt before Toji was speeding through the buiding. It felt like you blinked once and you were by the gates of Jujutsu High, still held tightly in Toji’s arms. The students were all gathered and staring at the sky. Your gaze followed theirs and you saw a very alive, very strange looking Gojo. 

“Aw, what the fuck,” Toji gritted out, so quietly you were the only one who could hear him. Gojo landed on the ground a few meters in front of Toji, half his face still dripping blood. Toji’s arms tightened momentarily, cradling you further against his warm chest before loosening.

“Gotta deal with this. Some freaky shit is happening. Stay here,” Toji said, setting you gently on your feet. 

“Hey. It’s been a while,” Toji said, his smile maniacal. You shivered, this was not the Gojo you’d met before. Whatever had happened between him and Toji had caused some kind of irreparable change to Gojo. Toji was standing and staring at Gojo, as if caught completely unaware.

“For real?” Toji asked, his worm curling around his body. Toji moved in a slow circle away from you, leading Gojo in the opposite direction.

“I’m alive and kicking!” Gojo replied, pushing back his hair to show a healed wound on his head. You hadn’t seen Gojo without his glasses before, but now his blue eyes were open wide. His head was lolling from side to side, like he wasn’t in his right mind. 

“He’s high,” Geto interrupted from a few feet away. In the extreme situation, you hadn’t kept track of where everyone else was. 

“Yeah, no shit –”

“Cursed Technique Reversal: Red,” Gojo said while floating upside down. A small red ball formed in his hand before he flicked it towards you and Toji. It didn’t even seem like he was aiming his deadly technique all too carefully, aiming for the general area Toji was in. Shoko and the blond student had to run and jump out of the way to avoid being slaughtered by their own classmate. Before you could even react, Toji’s sword was out and he was being pushed back by the massive blow. 

“Toji!” you cried out, as he crashed into the building behind him. The sheer force of Gojo’s half hearted attack had shattered the outside of the building and created an impact crater where Toji stood. As the dust cleared, you gasped as you saw that he was bleeding from a wound on his head. Toji’s gaze flicked to yours, his face uncharacteristically open. He wore an expression of confusion and vulnerability rather than his usual cockiness. But just as quickly as it had come, his face shuttered again, and the self confidence you usually saw appeared in his easy half grin.

“These are all things I can handle,” Toji said, now swinging a chain with the sword attached to it as he looked up at a deranged Gojo. 

Toji POV

It had completely taken him out of the moment when you’d called out for him. Not because you’d done anything bad or interrupted his fighting. No, Toji was used to distractions during fights, it wasn’t that. What had really grabbed his attention was that it was like you cared about him. That you gave a shit that he could have died. No one had done that since Megumi’s mom was alive… but there was no time to think about that right now, he had to focus on how to take down the newly awakened Gojo and get you out of there.

When Toji saw Gojo initially, he was of a split mind. His gut was telling him to cut and run, that Gojo was now too powerful for Toji to deal with by himself. On the other hand, Toji really, really wanted to bring Gojo down again. He’d been told all his life that he was shit, that he’d never amount to anything, that he was inherently lesser for not having cursed energy, and all that despite being stronger than anyone else. Hell, he’d killed Gojo about ten minutes prior and that didn’t even count for anything anymore now that the kid had revived. His ego demanded that he fight Gojo, logic be damned.

But once you’d called out for him, your face drawn with tension, Toji’s plans had changed. He still needed to take care of Gojo in some kinda way, the kid was completely lost. And a dazed kid with unlimited power and the ability to regenerate was an issue. Normally, Toji would just think about himself, and what he needed to do in the situation. He still didn’t give a fuck about any of these sorcerer kids hanging around – if they wanted to get themselves killed, that wasn’t his problem. But you were here now, and Megumi was waiting for the both of you with Shiu. You couldn’t get out without  a sorcerer and they wouldn’t help unless he helped deal with Gojo. Something needed to be done, but Toji wasn’t sure exactly what it was.

“Satoru, this isn’t you!” Geto called out, his open robe swaying in the wind. There was something between those guys, but Toji didn’t care in the slightest what it was.

“Suguru,” Gojo replied softly, focusing all his attention on the other sorcerer. “I’m not even angry over you right now. It’s just that the world feels so, so wonderful right now.” Geto shifted his stance, widening his legs. 

“Suguru, should we kill these guys?” Gojo asked calmly, like he was asking if Geto wanted a cup of tea. Geto hissed as his eyes tracked the still floating Gojo. Toji tensed before swinging his sword again. If this was where the kid’s mind was at, he might need to be put down like a rabid dog.

“No, Satoru. There’s no point. There’s no point in creating more harm,” Geto replied. Gojo’s head tilted to the side, like that was a viewpoint he’d never considered before. Geto kept his eyes on Gojo as he ran over to stand next to Toji. One of Toji’s eye brows hiked – what the fuck was this now?

“I can deal with this alone,” Toji grunted, eyeing Gojo’s body in the sky. Gojo had gone lax, his limbs loose like he was resting on a beach instead of about to fight. Even so, Toji knew he was volatile, ready to strike at any moment. 

“No, you can’t! He’s too far gone. He’ll destroy everything and everyone here,” Geto said, his purple eyes only on Gojo. Toji thought back to the fight he’d had with Gojo earlier. He could probably still win, if he was careful.

“I’m strong enough –”

“Think about everyone else! Not just yourself, you dickhead!” Geto yelled. Toji rolled his eyes, the last thing he needed was to be scolded by some schoolboy. He had thought about you and Megumi, wasn’t that enough?

“Satoru!” Geto called out one last time. But the kid wasn’t listening to anyone, he was off in some lala land of sorcery or some bullshit.

“I won’t let you go this way!” Geto said, taking a fighting stance next to Toji. Toji sighed, this was becoming way more annoying than he had anticipated. He reached to the mouth of his worm, grabbing the end of a new weapon and pulling it out.

“Here, kid. If you’re gonna do this, you’ll need something better than your shitty technique,” Toji said with resignation. 

“I don’t need your help –”

“You do. You’re about one minute from keeling over. Take this. Don’t fuck it up, it’s one of my favorite weapons. Playful Cloud,” Toji said, handing over the tri-segemented staff. He didn’t even know why he was doing this, he didn’t care all that much about these kids. But still, if Geto was going to help, he might as well be useful.

“I have enough cursed energy –”

“Oh my god, shut the fuck up. The staff doesn’t use cursed energy. It’ll help because you’re so physically weak and bad at fighting,” Toji groaned, already regretting helping the brat. Geto’s mouth slammed shut as he began poorly twirling the staff. Who the fuck was training these assholes? They fucking sucked at fighting. Two of the other kids were running towards Toji as well, taking up similar fighting poses next to Toji. What the fuck was happening? 

“Suguru. You’d stand against me?” Gojo asked, coming down to walk on the ground towards the other brat. Geto’s jaw clenched before he spoke again.

“I will. You’ve become –”

“The strongest,” Gojo finished, his smile sickeningly wide.

“A monster,” Geto replied, his eyes flashing. Toji tuned out as they began having some kind of intense, terse conversation together about whatever. He used Gojo’s momentary distraction to look for you, make sure you were okay. He immediately spotted you, that healer chick next to you again. Normally, he wouldn’t like her buddying up to you but she might be a good shield or be able to heal you if things really went south.

“We’ll help too,” some kid with black hair said. Toji didn’t even bother to respond, this punk was gonna be Gojo fodder.

“Mr. Assassin, I think I can help,” a young blond brat said courteously. Toji threw his chained sword at Gojo, aiming for his head again. Gojo considered it like it was a fly in his face before dodging it easily. Toji didn’t have time for fun and games with high school students any more, this problem needed to be solved. 

“Yeah, not sure about that,” Toji drawled as he thought about his next move. If direct attacks wouldn’t work, could he try to avoid detection and get Gojo that way? Or maybe Geto could use one of his shitty ass curses to…

“I can force a weak spot on Gojo using my technique,” the kid said. Now he had Toji’s full attention. Toji wasn’t one for working as a team, but he didn’t think there were any other ways around it given how strong and insane Gojo was at the moment.

“What?” Toji asked, already pulling out Black Rope. If the kid had a useful technique, he wouldn’t be able to use the Inverted Spear of Heaven. Otherwise, the sword would also nullify whatever the kid would be able to do, making his efforts useless. Toji didn’t like using the rope in battle, he’d gotten it in return for killing off some punk in Africa. The problem was that it burned shorter every time he used it, making it available fewer times. So this attack on Gojo better be worth the amount of rope it burned.

“My ratio technique forces a weak point on any target. If I use it on Gojo, maybe you can strike him hard enough to knock him out. It’s a 7:3 ratio, so the weak point should be right by his heart. You’ll see it,” the kid said, taking a sword out of a holster. 

“Got it. Could work, but we would need Gojo distracted,” Toji said, already thinking through the fight. “He’s too strong to take head on, I’d need to figure out…” Toji’s eyes slid over to Geto, who was now staring at Gojo intensely, some deep emotion running on his face as he watched Gojo walk around like an idiot. Fucking teenagers, Toji thought ruefully. Toji clapped Geto on the shoulder and pulled him back a step to join in the impromptu conference. 

“OK, kid. Your turn to be useful. This brat –

“Nanami Kento, sir –”

“Sure. Nanami is going to force a weak point on Gojo. You’re going to distract him so I can wrap this around him and kill– er, knock him out,” Toji explained quickly. He had nearly said he was going to kill Gojo from muscle memory. The kids probably fought as a team all the time, they could figure out this simple plan. They had one chance to get Gojo, and he didn’t want to waste it.

“Wh - how am I gonna do that?” Geto sputtered, still holding Playful Cloud like a security blanket. Toji took one last look at you before focusing entirely on what needed to happen.

“I don’t fucking know. That’s your job,” Toji said, taking off towards the forest surrounding the barrier. 

Gojo POV

Gojo slouched down in the leather chair in Masamichi’s office, familiar with the setting from the many times he’d been sent here before. It was so annoying to have to deal with Yaga right now, especially as he’d just become the strongest.

Well, maybe.

If Gojo was honest with himself, he still had a lot to learn. Sure, he now had mastery over the Six Eyes, limitless technique, and had finally understood RCT all within the span of one afternoon, but the four other guys in the office had still managed to knock him out. And that really shouldn’t have happened, Gojo thought with a scowl.

It hadn’t been a fair fight, Gojo thought sullenly as he crossed his arms over his chest. The four of them should have been easy pickings for him considering his new powers but they’d still managed to take him down. Which – it wasn’t like he was ever going to kill them. Probably not, anyway. Definitely not Geto. Maybe Toji, but even then Gojo hadn’t really been thinking straight at the time. And yes, Gojo knew that there was no fair fight in the world of Jujutsu sorcery and that every fight could be your last blah blah blah. Gojo could practically hear Yaga yelling at him. Which, Masamichi was yelling at him, but about something different this time. 

…but Gojo hadn’t expected Suguru to confess his love, and especially not in front of everyone. Gojo remembered the moment perfectly, Geto’s purple eyes screwed shut as he yelled out “I LOVE YOU!” in the main courtyard of Jujutsu High. They had been talking about their philosophical differences, something they did often when they were alone. Gojo had just brought up that he didn’t need their limits any longer, that they were beyond what everyone else could ever imagine. 

Gojo had been in a dream-like state where everything felt possible and beyond sublime. Everything had felt like watching a movie – a perfect life untainted by the reality of living. Gojo had been dreaming about his future with Geto when Suguru had blurted out those three words. In that same moment, Nanami had used his ratio technique and Toji executed the strike, knocking Gojo out with enough force to break the gates to Jujutsu High. It was enough to break him from his trance, his dream state lost once more.

It was impressive, but ultimately he really wanted to talk to Suguru in private and see if he meant it or if it was just the heat of the moment. Maybe he could get Suguru to say it again, Gojo thought, tilting his head to the side. He could have Geto at his mercy, pinning him down to kiss him over and over. Gojo would tease him until Suguru cracked, finally getting to the core of his reserved boyfriend. Then he’d make Sugu say it again and again until Gojo finally believed that he meant it, that someone in the world loved him for more than his ability to fight…

“ – GOJO! PAY ATTENTION!” Yaga roared, knocking Gojo on the head.

“Owww,” Gojo complained, holding the side of his head with a pout.

“Have you been listening at all?” Masamichi yelled while circling back to the seat behind his desk.

“No,” Gojo said with an impish smile. He didn’t have to annoy Yaga, but he sure did enjoy it.

“You caused such a massive problem and you’re not even listening! Yu and Kento, you’re dismissed. You’re to stay in your dorms for the time being. Geto, go back to your rooms as well. You’re not off the hook either, but I’ll deal with you later,” Masamichi barked out, dismissing the students with a wave of his hand. The two first years left the room after looking at one another, while Suguru lingered. He put his hand on Gojo’s shoulder and gave him a small squeeze before sauntering out of the room, his long robes and hair flowing gracefully behind him. Gojo loved to see Geto coming, but he also loved watching him leave…maybe he could pull Suguru’s hair now that it was down. Geto didn’t usually keep it down but…

“PAY ATTENTION!” Yaga exclaimed, pounding his fist on his desk. Gojo pouted, this was cutting into precious free time. He’d pay attention and get this meeting over with – he wanted to make his way back to Geto as soon as possible. Yaga rubbed his forehead and leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Gojo frowned – this was not how a scolding from Yaga usually went. Masamichi was all bellowing smoke, not tired resignation. Maybe Gojo had finally broken him.

“Gojo, I don’t know if I can help you with this one,” Yaga said, tugging on his goatee in thought. “You really did a lot this time.”

“It wasn’t so bad,” Gojo said, putting his hands behind his head. “Things worked out fine.”

“Gojo. You kidnapped the wife of Zen’in Naoya, brought the Sorcerer Assassin into the school, fought him to the death, and then had to be taken down by a team of sorcerers so you didn’t kill everyone,” Masamichi said, putting his sunglasses on his head to rub his eyes.

“When you put it that way it doesn't sound great. Usagi’s fine and I didn’t actually kill anyone so no harm, no foul,” Gojo said with a smile, crossing his legs. He wasn’t worried – what were the higher ups going to do? He and Geto were the strongest sorcerers, and it wasn’t like the assassin worked for them. Which reminded him…

“You don’t get the money, by the way,” Gojo tossed at Toji. 

“The fuck you mean I don’t get the money? I killed you,” Toji gritted out, crossing his arms. The more Gojo interacted with Toji, the more he liked him. Which, considering Gojo had wanted to kill him initially, was saying something. There was something about him that made Gojo want to bait Toji. Maybe it was the fact that Toji was the only person to come close to killing him, or maybe it was because he could actually learn something from the old man. Either way, Gojo’s opinion on Toji had shifted. 

“I’m not dead, am I?” Gojo taunted with a broad smile.

“You were the first time I left you,” Toji grumbled. 

“The elders are going to want to see Toji too –” Yaga interrupted. Toji rolled his eyes and scoffed.

“I’m not goin’, I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, staring daggers at Yaga. Gojo grinned again, Toji was a good person to know. Another powerful fighter who didn’t bow to the elder’s whims was another potential ally.

“Fighting Gojo within the walls of Jujutsu High –”

“So what?! He started it!” Toji exclaimed, throwing an arm out wide to point at Gojo.

“You’re over 30 and using the ‘he started it defense’?” Gojo asked with a laugh.

“You did start this, you punk. You made me fight to rescue my wo– Usagi,” Toji replied. “Besides, you’re not dead so what’s the problem?”

“Oh, you wanted to fight. And that’s what I said! I’m not dead so you don’t get the money!” Gojo said, crossing his legs.

“I definitely did it once, so give me half the money. S’what would be fair,” Toji complained.

“No way, you didn’t completely slice off my head –”

“And for the murder of several other sorcerers –”

“You don’t have any proof of who killed those sorcerers. No one does. Coulda been anyone. Maybe you did it, Masamichi,” Toji said with a smirk. Gojo laughed as Yaga took a deep breath before turning to face Gojo again. 

“The elders are going to order Toji’s execution –”

“Nah,” Toji said, picking his teeth. They would get along great, Gojo just knew it. There was a squeak from the corner of the room, behind Toji. Gojo didn’t need to turn his head to figure out who it was. You were so quiet Gojo had forgotten about you. Actually, he’d forgotten about you completely until now. You weren’t interesting or powerful, so Gojo had mentally filed you away in the same category as plants and cute animals. 

“And the Zen’in have been demanding we return Usagi,” Masamichi continued. You paled and looked at Toji, scuttling closer as if seeking protection from him. Toji stiffened slightly, his eyes narrowing. 

“No. She’s not going back,” Toji said, giving Masamichi a hard glare. Gojo’s gaze flicked between you and Toji. Oh? Sending you back to the Zen’in set him off but the possibility of being executed didn’t? So Gojo hadn’t been wrong before, not exactly. Toji was interested in Zen’in Naoya’s cute little wife…

“Unfortunately we have to acquiesce to their demands, they are partially in control of the school –”

“I’m not sending her back to the Zen’in. It’s not happening –”

“It would make everything much easier if we sent her back peacefully rather than them coming here–”

“Naoya beats the shit out of her. Nearly killed her. That’s why we’re in the city. I brought her to get healed by Shoko after he strangled her,” Toji gritted out. “So no. She can’t go back to the Zen’in. We’re never going back. I’m not raising my kid in an environment like that and I’m sure as fuck not letting Naoya choke her to death.” Masamichi was silent for once, his face settling into a look of disgust. 

Meanwhile, you had flushed at Toji’s words, your hands shaking. A small pang of guilt pricked at Gojo – he hadn’t meant to do anything that terrible to you. And he certainly hadn’t known your background information. It didn’t surprise him, the clans were complete shit, his own included. So if you couldn’t go back home then…

“You seem broke,” Gojo interrupted. “Where are you gonna go?”

“I’m a little down on my luck, sure. But I’ll figure it out –”

“You kill sorcerers for money. You gotta be broke to be an assassin,” Gojo speculated.

“Again, you can’t prove that. And maybe being an assassin is fun. I wouldn’t know personally, but seems like it could be,” Toji shot back, his grin returning to his face for a moment.

“Just shut up and stay here until I can figure this mess out,” Masamichi said with a long, tired sigh. He looked at Gojo over his sunglasses, his eyes more tired than Gojo remembered. 

“Really, Gojo. Stay here. Don’t make this worse for me than it already is,” he said with a groan before getting out of his chair.

Damn it. His talk with Geto would have to wait. 

And Gojo hated waiting.

No, I don't really think they could take down Gojo together but I thought it was cute. Also yeah black rope here bc it's fun. Miguel’s not dead tho, Toji bumped off one of their enemies or st.