#pleaaaaase

He was sprawled on his back, one arm behind his head and the other on your hip. His fingers were gripping your thigh, pushing you down and lifting his hips up lazily to meet your own. It wasn’t that he was disinterested; he was letting you take the lead for the moment. And you knew he was letting you – once you saw all that muscle under his shirt, you knew he could move you in any way he wanted. And you probably wouldn’t stop him.

“Havin’ trouble, Sugar?” he asked, a twinkle in his eye. 

“N-no,” you wheezed, trying to make it seem like you were out of breath just from the experience, not the exertion. 

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m enjoying the sights. A lot,” Thatch said, running his hand to your ass and giving it a firm pinch. “But I know whatcha need,” he continued, now bringing both of his hands to settle on your waist. You raised a brow.

“Oh, really? And what would that be?” you asked, clenching down on him. Thatch bit his lip and grunted, but didn’t relent. Instead, he rolled over quickly so that you were stuck beneath him. Instead of being on top, you were now beneath this muscled mountain of a man. You squeaked as he buried his face in your neck, his stubble tickling your skin.

Your head lolled to the side of its own volition as Thatch began sloppily kissing your neck and shoulders. His hands found your own and twined your fingers, pinning your hands to the side. He began pumping inside you once more, but this time much slower than you’d been riding him. He was fucking you like he was savoring the experience and committing it to memory. He was more romantic than you’d been expecting, you thought this was just going to be a one night stand.

A while earlier, Thatch had set you on the kitchen counter to make out once he carried you into the house. He’d trapped you between his arms, his hands planted on the counter on either side of you. You’d wrapped your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist, uncaring if it made you look like a ho. He was hot, here, and you needed this. Your fingers undid the buttons of his shirt before you pushed your fingers inside, reveling in the hair on his chest. You were grinding against him, ready to have him rail you on the counter. Instead, he’d hoisted you into his arms once again and carried you down the hallway into your bedroom.

“C’mon, I’m gonna do you one better than that. I’m not takin’ ya on the kitchen counters. You need a little more, right?” he asked before setting you on the bed, his hands already skimming under your dress.

Which is how you’d ended up in your bed shortly thereafter, completely naked with an enthusiastic Thatch eating you out like it was his last meal. One of your hands was in his pompadour, pulling him closer with every swirl of his tongue and the other grabbing his shoulder like your life depended on it. 

You weren’t sure if it was because you hadn’t had any action in so long or because he was just that good, but you’d come on his face within minutes of him starting. His large nose rubbed against your clit as he pushed his tongue into you, his rough hands keeping your thighs spread apart. You came apart on his face, with Thatch eagerly slurping at you until you whined and pushed him away.

That was the first time Thatch made you come, but it wasn’t the last. Once you caught your breath, he’d flipped you over onto your hands and knees. You had sex like that many times, but now you really understood why they called it doggy style – because you were a bitch in heat for this man. Thatch had entered you slowly, allowing you to adjust to his size. You shivered a bit from the sensation, and he ran a hand up and down your back.

“Easy, we got all night. Can take it ‘s slowly as ya need,” he husked, kissing the middle of your back. You could barely manage to speak a coherent sentence to him, your mind foggy from the pleasure that was already steadily building in you, again. He’d taken his time like he said, slowly thrusting into you until you begged him for more. Thatch laughed and snaked his hand down between your legs, rubbing your clit in tandem with his thrusts until you came so hard you’d nearly blacked out.

The next round you’d straddled him, wanting to take care of him for a change. But you’d quickly run out of steam, landing you where you were now. Thatch had taken over again, his heavy body over yours. He wasn’t laying his body weight on you, but you felt surrounded by him. Every part of you was humming with need for this man, for the pleasure he was giving you. Thatch grinned at you, his facial scar winking. 

“Someone like you needs your brain turned off. You’re so used to bein’ in charge, hm? Lemme help ya, Shug. I’ll do the thinkin’ for a while,” he said, bottoming out in your cunt. A moan escaped your lips – that sounded great. You wrapped your legs around his waist as he pinned both of your wrists above your head with one hand. The other pinched your nipple deliciously hard before he sucked it into his mouth. 

“And I’ve got some ideas f’r you.”

Your eyes fluttered open the next morning as a smile crossed your face. You’d had the most amazing dream – that the sexy cowboy guy had come over and fucked your brains out for hours on end before letting you pass out, only to wake you up again in the early morning to split you like firewood. You smiled again, it had been a really hot dream but – wait, what? 

Where was Thatch? Your smile faded as you lifted your head and looked over next to you where there was no handsome cowboy waiting for you. His clothes and boots weren’t in your room either as far as you could tell and you definitely remembered him taking them off. 

Oh.

Well. 

You were a big girl, you knew beforehand this was the most likely outcome. Thatch was hitting  and quitting, nothing wrong with that. You still needed him to help you get your car and groceries from Whitebeard’s, but that was about it. You tried your hardest not to feel let down, it was what it was. Yes, he’d said a lot of things that made you think he was interested in you as a person, but guys just said whatever they could to get with women, that wasn’t news to you. Whatever, you thought as you threw on your robe and tied it around your waist. At least the sex had been good. 

Yawning, you shuffled to the kitchen to start the coffee machine. You didn’t have much but one thing you always kept in stock was coffee. You blinked in surprise when you saw a full pot of hot coffee and half of Thatch sticking out from under your sink and a bunch of parts on the floor laid out next to him. Waking up to see Thatch on his hands and knees in your kitchen wasn’t such a bad way to wake up, you thought, as you admired the sights of his muscled ass.

“Hey Sugar, I took the liberty of takin’ a shower and makin’ coffee. Hope that’s alright,” he said, as if this was completely normal. You walked around to grab one of the mugs from Kureha’s cupboards – this one said “Dr. Hireluk’s Cherry Blossom Vitality Serum” – and poured yourself a full cup.

“Yeah, thank you. What’s all this?” you asked, leaning back against the very counter he’d bent you over the previous night. Remembering the lewd act made your insides squirm so you were glad he was still looking under the sink.

“Your sink wasn’t draining right, so I thought I’d take a look. It’s not broken but it does need a new p trap since this one is degraded. Why don’t you take a shower and freshen up, we’ll go eat breakfast at the ranch, and head into town. We already gotta go to Franky’s, this’ll just be one more thing to pick up f’r ya if I don’t have an extra,” he said with a smile, wiping his hands on his jeans as he extricated himself from under the sink. He was right that the sink was slow to drain but it was so far down your list of things to do you’d practically forgotten it.

“I thought you took off,” you said airily, stirring some sugar into your coffee. Thatch bristled at your comment and walked closer to you. He planted a kiss on the top of your head before grabbing his own mug off the counter next to you.

“Aw, come on. You think I’d cut and run? I wouldn’t leave ya stranded,” he said, taking a sip. You shrugged but a corner of your mouth raised, happy he’d stayed with you. 

“Wait, what about the ranch? Don’t you need to cook breakfast?” you frowned at the thought of Thatch working so much – he was going to cook, and drive, and help you and fix your car and fix your sink and all that after having stayed up late into the night?

“ ‘S alright, Sugar. It’s Sunday, the one day a week I get completely off. My brothers cook for a change, which means I can still take you on that date tonight. I still owe ya one,” he said with a wide grin. You smiled back, taking a sip of the brew he made. It was stronger than you usually made it, but fuck it tasted good.

“Not another date at the ranch?” you asked with a sly smile. You hadn’t spent time with a man for this long in….well, ever. No one had ever wanted to spend so much time with you, especially so early on in meeting each other. It felt serendipitous that your day off aligned with his, you wondered how often that would happen in the future. Not that you were thinking about the future, but you’d be lying if you didn’t want Thatch whispering in your ear that you were his good girl while pulling your hair and your legs thrown over his shoulders, his throbbing cock so deep in you that you could practically taste it. Oh, you wanted that in your future, no questions asked.

“Not another date at the ranch. Though, I’m sure my brothers would be more than happy to see you. They really like you,” Thatch said, his own grin dropping for a moment. “You know all of them from the clinic?” he asked, aiming for casualness. You nodded. Was he jealous?

“Yeah. I started treating Ace about a year ago and since then the rest of your brothers trickled in. I didn’t realize I was treating practically the whole family. Except you and Newgate of course,” you replied. Thatch laughed.

“Tch, can’t believe my brothers held out on me like that. Coulda met you months ago,” Thatch said with an easy grin. “And as for Pops…well, I don’t think Pops has ever been to the doctor. Marco is the closest he’s ever gotten, and he doesn’t listen to what Marco has to say. Pops does what he wants, always has.” You weren’t surprised – old ranchers were the most stubborn creatures to walk the earth. Newgate could have been hit in the chest by a cannonball and he would have probably tried to walk it off.

“Speaking of, do you not like Marco?” he asked softly. You bit your lip - you’d have to navigate this well or your cowboy would slip through your fingers. And you didn’t want to lie, if you saw Thatch more than this weekend you’d probably end up seeing Marco again at the ranch. You’d made a scene yesterday and you wanted to apologize to Marco – he really hadn’t done anything that deserved your ire.  

“I do like Marco. It’s - we work a lot together,” you started, unsure how to say exactly how you felt. “He’s great - he’s smart and attentive and he’s gonna be an excellent doctor. People - they treat him differently than they treat me. It’s not his fault, he doesn’t do anything to cause it. It’s just frustrating.”

“Differently how?” Thatch asked, his corded forearm muscles flexing as he gripped his mug.

“Ah, they’re just - it’s just different for us. Like I said, it’s not his fault. He’s fine-”

“He’s fine, it’s fine, I’m fine. You say that a lot,” Thatch said softly. “I’m beginnin’ to wonder if ‘I’m fine’ is you tellin’ me that or you tellin’ yourself that.” You had to take a moment to recalibrate after what Thatch said before continuing.

“I mean, Marco’s a good doctor and we work well together. He’s smart and respectful and generally pleasant to be around. I do like Marco,” you said, taking a sip of your coffee. 

“But-” Thatch prompted, taking a gulp from his own cup. 

“But…I think life is easier for Marco than it is for me. And it’s not his fault; life isn’t fair. I know that. But Marco’s got money and a nice family like you, he doesn’t have to moonlight or take out loans. Everyone loves him, they treat him like a prince at the hospital. Women fall over themselves to get his attention, the men all want to work with him. The attendings are all buddy buddy with him and…” you looked down at your coffee, tracing the rim of the mug with your fingers.

“And things aren’t like that for me. That’s all,” you finished, not wanting to say anything more and ruin the nice morning you were having. Thatch bent down and kissed you on the cheek, stroking your face with his thumb. He didn’t say anything, just let you collect yourself for a moment.

“I get it. Life’s tough. After you shower we’ll hit the road. Do you wanna stay in the car and I’ll bring you breakfast outside?” he asked, as the smell of your soap on his skin hit your nose. It was a considerate thought, he was trying to limit your time seeing Marco. What you really wanted to do was stay inside and have marathon sex with Thatch. Unfortunately that wasn’t possible since your car was still in town and you needed it for tomorrow’s shift at the hospital. 

“No, I’ll come in. I should apologize to Marco, I was kinda bitchy to him last night,” you said, thinking over the previous day with a small frown.

“He’ll live, he’s heard much worse. But if you wanna come in, we can sit for a few minutes. I’m fairly sure we have an extra p valve back at the ranch. Got a ton of spare everything, helps for times like this,” he explained. “C’mon, let’s get moving. I wanna feed ya. I make a wicked omlette,” Thatch said, shooing you out of your own kitchen. You weren’t going to argue with that. 

A while later and you and Thatch had made it back to the ranch. It was so easy being with him, you almost felt like oversharing about your life. But you weren’t sure where things were headed with Thatch, so you tried to keep things light and casual. You asked him questions about his life at the ranch, his brothers, being a chef, and Thatch was all too happy to share.

 He had you laughing when he described life with his brothers – it sounded like someone was always up to something. It sounded idyllic, actually, like how you’d always imagined life to be with a loving family. He was just telling you about the time Jiru kept a secret pet trout in the bathtub when the truck pulled into the drive of the ranch. 

There were already various farmhands milling about, though they did stop and stare when Thatch got out of the truck and walked around to let you out. You heard some wolf whistles and narrowed your eyes at Fossa, who was closest to you and already smoking a cigar. Your ability to take no shit had been hard won and you weren’t going to back down to people you regularly had to convince that they had to drink water daily.

“Don’t worry about them-” Thatch said as he offered you his hand to jump down from the vehicle. The truck wasn’t lifted, but it was higher off the ground than you were used to.

“I’m not worried about anything, besides your clogged arteries!” you yelled back at Fossa, who at least had the shame to take his cigar out of his mouth. Thatch laughed as he tucked your hand into the crook of his arm and continued walking towards the main farm house. Once inside, he brought you back to the same dining room you remembered from the previous night. 

“Take a seat, sweets, I’ll bring something out for us pronto,” Thatch said, pulling out a chair for you. You tried to quell the growing feeling in your heart – you didn’t want to get ahead of yourself and think of him as anything other than a hookup. Maybe he treated all the ladies he saw like this. You wondered if you were special, but your experiences had taught you not to get your hopes up.

“C’n I get some too?” Ace whined as he plopped down next to you. Just great, you thought, even as a smile flitted across your face. Ace was a pain in your ass at the clinic, but he had a lot of charisma and was fun to talk to. Even though you wanted to continue hanging with Thatch, you didn’t actually mind Ace joining in.

“So you two finally made it back?” Ace asked, waggling his eyebrows. 

“Seems like it,” you said dryly, as you arched a brow.

“Thatch doesn’t sleep out much. Actually, I don’t think I can remember him ever sleeping out before,” Ace mused, tilting his chair back. You had to stop yourself from telling him that he was going to fall backwards. A flush spread across your cheeks at Ace’s words, the flame of your hope burning a little brighter.

“Aww, you’re blushing! You must like him too-”

“Stop it!” you whisper yelled at him, jabbing your finger into his shirtless chest. He had to wear some kind of shirt when he came into the clinic, but you’d never seen it buttoned. 

“Naw, it’s cute! I guess I shoulda dragged him to the clinic too,” Ace said, his hands behind his head. Now you wanted to push the chair backwards and make him fall. You weren’t sure what it was but Ace brought out big sister energy in you. It was nice in its own way, no one had really teased you like that other than Kaya.

Kaya! You wanted to text her and let her know that you’d finally hooked up with someone for the first time since medical school! She’d want to know all the dirty details later, but you did want to at least let her know you’d bagged the hot cowboy. You reached for your phone in your pocket, only to find it dead. Shit.

“D’you have a charger, Ace?” you asked, mentally crossing your fingers.

“Naw,” he said with a yawn. “I use the one in the kitchen. Thatch locked it to the wall so I know it’s always there,” he explained. 

“Why are you eating with us anyway? Can’t you just reheat leftovers?” you groused, getting up to pour yourself more coffee from the machine in the corner of the dining room. Ace’s head cocked to the side.

“What’s a leftover?”

“You don’t eat leftovers? I’m surprised,” you said, genuinely astounded that the walking garbage disposal was a picky eater.

“No, he’s saying he doesn’t know what a leftover is. He’s never seen one,” Thatch said, coming back into the dining room with three plates balanced on his arm.

“How did you know-”

“I have a sixth sense about when Ace is hungry. Actually, this little fucker eats more than Jozu, Vista, and Curiel combined,” Thatch said, handing Ace a plate loaded with eggs, hashbrowns and toast. Ace smiled warmly at his brother before immediately tucking in. Thatch rolled his eyes but ruffled Ace’s hair affectionately as the younger man shoveled the food into his mouth. Your plate of food looked incredible, but you wanted to get at least a little charge on your phone before you left with Thatch into town after breakfast.

“I’m just gonna go plug this in the kitchen if that’s ok?” you asked, making sure you were allowed to use the cord. 

“Of course, go ahead. You remember where the kitchen is, the cord is on the serving counter,” Thatch said, peppering his eggs. 

“Oh! And while I’m there, I’ll grab my food from the freezer too so I don’t forget. After you help me with my car I can drive to my place and -”

“What food in the freezer?” Ace said with his mouth full of eggs. He looked like when a dog was caught eating something it shouldn’t, his brown eyes wide and sad.

“Oh, uh, Thatch let me store my groceries here overnight. Just my lasagna, some ramen, things like that. I can grab it now, that way I don’t forget it here,” you explained. Ace gulped down the bite he had in his mouth before setting down his fork and knife.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know it was yours,” Ace began to say. 

“Wh- how much of it did you eat?” you asked, shifting on your feet. If he ate a meal or two you could probably make due. Sometimes there were celebration meals at the hospital and you thought someone’s birthday was coming up so you could probably scrape by.

“All of it,” Ace said, a guilty look on his face.

“All - all of it?” you repeated back dumbly. Ace nodded.

“Yeah but I thought it was for us! Thatch never buys food like that and I love that kinda stuff! I used to eat that shit all the time with Lu and ‘Bo! I thought it was a treat!” Ace explained as Thatch rubbed his forehead with his fingers. 

“But I - um, I - all of it? But there was so much and -” your mind went blank with what Ace had said. He ate all your food. All of it. He was still talking to you, apologizing and trying to explain but you couldn’t hear what he was saying. You had no more money. None. You wouldn’t – how were you going to survive this month? Maybe you could ask Kaya – no. That wasn’t an option. She didn’t need another freeloader in her life after what that butler guy did to her family. You could….

You spaced out completely, trying to think of what you’d do until your next payday. Even then, you had to repay another chunk of your loan and you wouldn’t be able to do much until the second paycheck of the month hit. 

“I’m gonna - I’m gonna get some air,” you said quietly before walking to the back door you’d seen previously. Thatch was calling after you but now wasn’t the time for sexy cowboy games. You had real problems and actual issues and messing around with some hottie wasn’t going to help you. You’d gotten laid for a night, and that was great. But now you were back in the real world and you had shit to do. You’d figure something out, you had gotten out of worse situations before, but in the moment it felt overwhelming. 

You weren’t even sure where your feet were taking you as you walked the path in front of you. How could you be so stupid? It wasn’t really the food, it was the fact that you let someone enter your life and change your normal and this was what happened. Even in your current state, you knew the thoughts weren’t logical. Thatch had only been trying to help you, and he had been doing a lot for you, for free. It was a build up of everything – of issues at work, of problems with your family, of being broke and tired and always feeling behind. You wanted to scream at the top of your lungs or cry or do something.

You ended up walking behind the big brown barn, your hand running against the rough wood of the paneling. The acrid smell of cigarette smoke wafted in your nose. You didn’t mind, you partook in cigarettes every now and again. Life was stressful and one cancer stick wasn’t going to kill you immediately. Probably. Maybe. Either way, you turned the corner behind the barn to see Marco, sitting on his heels, puffing in the mid morning sun. He looked up at you, his eyebrows hiked even higher than they normally were. 

“Oh, uh, I can go-” you said, already taking a step backwards.

“No, no. It’s alright, I’m basically done yoi,” Marco said, taking another drag of his cigarette. It was a little awkward, you wanted to apologize for last night but weren’t sure how to broach the subject. You had always been a little bristly towards him, but usually you curbed it better than you had last night. 

“Can I bum one?” you asked, squatting down next to him. Marco’s eyebrows were going to leave his head if they went any higher.

“You smoke?” he asked incredulously, offering you his half filled pack.

“Do you?” you replied, taking a cigarette and putting it between your lips.

“Of course not yoi. It’s unhealthy,” he said sarcastically, lighting you up. You gave him a little smile as you took the first drag. Heavenly.

“Neither do I,” you deadpanned, ashing on the ground. You sat next to Marco in silence for a moment, gathering your courage.

“Listen, Marco. I’m sorry about last night. I was on edge and should’ve been nicer. You didn’t do anything wrong. You never do. I like rounding with you too, it’s not that I don’t,” you began, exhaling your smoke through your nose. You thought it would make you look cool but it only made your nostrils feel weird.

“It’s not Dr. Fushichou anymore? You know, I think this is the first time you’ve called me by my first name yoi,” Marco said dryly.

“That’s so not true. Sometimes when I talk about rounds with you to Kaya I also call you Marco,” you retorted lightly. You actually complained about rounds with him, but now didn’t seem the time to bring that up. Marco hummed but didn’t reply.

“D’you know the reason I like rounding with you so much? Aside from the fact that you’re smart and get your work done?” he asked, stubbing out his cigarette on the dirt in front of him.

“Um, no? I didn’t even realize you were requesting me until yesterday,” you said, taking another drag. The nicotine was going to your head and making you dizzy since it had been so long since you smoked last. 

“Because you treat me like an actual person yoi. You don’t hit on me or try to ingratiate yourself to me because of my dad, or try to get me to introduce you to any of my brothers. You’re snappy and correct me when I’m wrong and you don’t need me for anything,” he said, looking you in the eyes. 

“I mean-” What were you supposed to say? That you’d never bothered to find out who his father was? That he wasn’t your type? That it annoyed you when people answered questions wrong and your know it all personality made it so you had to correct people? You kept your mouth shut and let him have positive connotations for your negative qualities, it seemed like it was working in your favor. 

“Not that you need an introduction to my brothers. It seems like they all know you already. Like you better than me too,” Marco said, looking past you to the pastures beyond the farm house. Was he really getting depressed about that? You’d gladly send them all back to him, you thought. But you did also understand how he would feel betrayed by their choices.

“They do not, they’re your brothers,” you said, touching Marco’s forearm for a moment. Was he feeling insecure? You did not do that well helping others when they were upset – if Marco started crying you were both in trouble.

“They’ve been going to you at the urgent care for months now yoi. Urgent Care! They don’t trust -”

“Of course they trust you. You’re a good doctor, they-,” you started to say, only to be interrupted. 

“We don’t want to bother you, Marco,” Thatch’s voice rang in as he joined the two of you. Thatch kicked a booted foot against it, leaning backwards. This was not the moment to admire how fucking hot he looked like that, but you couldn’t help it. It wasn’t your fault his massive quads were at eye level. You looked away, trying to forget the weight of his thighs on your own as you laid on your stomach, adjusting your knee higher up so he hit at an even deeper angle…your face went hot as you tried to focus. Marco, the feelings, the urgent care, FOCUS.

“We see how hard you work, how tired you are at the end of the day. And we know how much you try to help Pops at home. No one wants to add to your stress. And if they had known that they were adding to Sugar’s, we wouldn’t’ve done that either,” Thatch said, clapping his hand on Marco’s shoulder. Marco sighed and Thatch ruffled the hair on the top of his head. 

“So what? You would’ve just…gone nowhere? Done nothing?” you asked, tossing a hand up. 

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Thatch said with a nod. Both you and Marco rubbed your foreheads. Thatch’s eyes flicked to the cigarette pack still in Marco’s hand.

“Stop smoking, it’s bad for you,” Thatch tossed at Marco. Marco rolled his eyes and stood up. It was weird seeing him in casual clothes, but if there was one thing about these brothers – they made fine looking cowboys.

“Yeah, yeah,” Marco groused, but with no heat behind his words. 

“Does that make you Dr. Sugar?” Marco asked with his classic half lidded smile. 

“Only if you want me to strangle you with your own stethoscope, Dr. Fushichou,” you replied with a smile of your own. You were glad things were patched up better with Marco but if he called you “Sugar” at the hospital, he’d be in the Emergency Room as a patient. 

“Leave her alone, Marco. Come on back inside, let’s eat, yeah? I sorted everything out with Ace,” Thatch said, offering you a hand. You took it and he pulled you to standing, his hand behind your waist to steady you. “He’s gonna pay you back for the food once he gets paid, and until then I’m gonna cook for you,” he said as the two of you started to walk back to the farmhouse. 

“I don’t know-” you started to think about all the ways Thatch’s plan wouldn’t work. You didn’t have the time to stop by every morning or night for food, and based on what had already happened, you guessed he had to cook fresh daily.

“I’ll bring food to your house for dinner, and send some in the morning with Marco. That way you’re always eating fresh,” Thatch explained, like this was no big deal. You chewed the nail of your thumb.

“Are you sure that-”

“Oi! What about me yoi? You never send me with food to the hospital,” Marco complained before entering the main house. 

“I’m not taking you on a date tonight, either,” Thatch yelled after him. “Speaking of, why don’t you eat and we can get going. I haven’t forgotten you offered me a drink,” Thatch said with a cocky smile.

“And you know how much I like sippin’ on delicious things.”