The Beginnings of a Future Pirate King

Chapter 36: Stronger and Stronger

The Beginnings of a Future Pirate King
Chapter 36: Stronger and Stronger
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"Anyone can give up; it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."– Unknown

Luffy was sitting on a chair in the room he shared with his brothers as they helped him clean himself up. Ace had gotten a bucket of warm water and a cloth from the nurses and Sabo had just talked with Luffy hoping he would respond to anything at all. Marco had Luffy's hat since he had left it in Thatch's room and Luffy was in no hurry to return there.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Sabo asked him finally he had been avoiding that particular question for a while now since he was not sure how it would affect the boy.

"Nu uh." Luffy said looking at the floor his mind still playing everything back going over what had happened that night.

"Thatch will be alright." Ace said confidently dropping the cloth into the murky water and pushing the bucket away before looking up at Luffy. Luffy wouldn't lift his head he was so far into it he barely heard what Ace said at all. Sighing Ace stood up and carefully lifted Luffy's chin up to look him in the eyes.

"Thatch will live." He said sternly to his brother holding his gaze to reassure him.

"Damn straight he will-yoi." Marco said from the door way holding the straw hat in his hand looking at the kids softly.

Marco wanted to leave, to chase after Teach and give him the punishment he deserved but the old man told him to wait. Marco had been the first division commander for a really long time and he didn't get there by disobeying his captain and father. When pops said for him to wait to let him watch things carefully then he would listen, even if he didn't exactly like it. He knew that right now Luffy would need him most and throwing a tantrum over this situation wasn't helping anyone.

No one had gone back to bed after the incident and really who could blame them? One of their own had been attacked by someone they considered a brother. Something like this had never happened before and they would be making sure it never happened again.

"How do you know..." Luffy finally said still looking at Ace his chocolate eyes were watery and red rimed from crying but there was a seriousness there mixed with worry that made Ace watch him harder.

"Because he's our brother." Sabo said firmly making pride fill Marco's chest at the boys words.

"That's right-yoi." He said kneeling down to Luffy's level and placing the hat back on the kids head hoping that would relax him some.

"Ne, can I have some time with Luffy alone for a bit-yoi?" He asked the two boys who had been guarding the kid for the past few hours. Ace and Sabo exchanged looks before sighing in defeat.

"Sure, we're going to go see if we can help with anything else." Sabo said grabbing his top hat from the dresser in the room.

"I'm going to go help in the kitchen; they'll need whatever help they can there." Ace said and waved as he left. Marco knew that he would be passing the kid back to the boys later but for now he needed to be with the kid himself.

"Thatch is hurt but he shall survive-yoi." Marco said to Luffy softly sitting him down on his bed before sitting beside him pulling him close.

"But what if he's really hurt." Luffy whispered out staring at the wall.

"He is really hurt, but he was able to avoid a lot of other damage. Thatch is smart, he's strong and he's our brother-yoi." Marco said hugging the boy tightly putting his chin on Luffy's head.