Our New Home

Chapter 17 (Revised)

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece.

A loud knocking sounded from outside his door and Marco could only mentally protest being disturbed by one of his many brothers/sisters. He leaned back in his chair with a sigh and gave a side eye to the intimidating stack of paperwork he knew was part of the not done pile that aided his long nights for this week. Before he could debate just setting it on fire the knocking got more persistent.

"I'm coming yoi! Give it a break before you knock my door down," he hollered.

With one last look at the desk he so ineffectively tried to keep organized he pulled the door open only to come face to face with Thatch.

"This better be good yoi. I have a shit ton of work to do and I don't have time for more shenanigans from you."

Thatch grinned and shouldered his way inside, "Aww Marco what a lovely greeting for your favorite brother. Aren't you gonna miss lil ol' me since I'm set to leave soon on that quick mission with Teach?"

Marco turned and calculated how quick it'd be to just bodily toss the other out his door before seeing something about Thatch's demeanor that almost screamed more stress to come. He shut the door and made his was back over to his desk where he turned the chair to face the fourth division commander sitting on his bed with a too large grin that didn't quite make it to his eyes.

"Thatch this better be life or death right now because if you fail to recall it's your division and Haruta's that are making my workload harder these days yoi. It doesn't help that Oyaji approved you going with Teach which I wouldn't be surprised if you planned it knowing full well you haven't finished your necessary assignments," Marco glared.

"Well it certainly was a surprise Teach requested  me, but Oyaji, as everyone was leaving, did give me a brief explanation that he thinks I need a breather seeing as I haven't been off the ship since I was captured," Thatch said.

Marco nodded, "Yea I know. Once this is over we should have the navigators bring us to another island. Maybe we can have the three little ones explore under careful supervision."

Thatch grinned, "You totally have to let me be a part of that team."

Marco glared, "If you can manage to finish even a days load of paperwork. It's bad enough I'm overseeing second division. I didn't sign up for yours too."

Thatch dropped the grin, "Yea buddy I know and I said I was sorry! I keep getting distracted by the new additions to the crew. Man are they a handful, but if it isn't a breathe of fresh air."

"It is nice to have a more younger bunch with us," Marco agreed with a sigh as he leaned back and folded his leg . "The crew has literally never been more livelier then when those three play such a large scale game of hide and seek yoi."

Thatch laughed before quieting down, "Yea you got me there. It's ridiculous how quick they are to just befriend everyone, but still keep all of us at an arms length distance. Did you ever wonder why that is?"

Marco paused as the tension switched from a peaceful one to that of a more complex situation and he knew whatever this was needed to be taken seriously. The first division commander could probably recall all the times Thatch has switched from happy go lucky to full division commander mode in a private conversation with him on one hand. Each and every time Thatch had something crucial to speak about that Marco knew would need to be dealt with ASAP. A pang in his heart formed as a sense of deja vu occurred considering the last time this very situation occurred Thatch had had a bad feeling about the second division commander. That one ended with a group of crew members that had gone with the aforementioned commander on a mission returning with half of them in body bags that left not only an empty feeling in their hearts, but an empty room on the ship only serving to remind them all of what they lost.